Arc Among Thieves
by Log1c
Summary: Taken in by a group of thieves, Jaune Arc has been forced to become something he never imagined...a thief, a liar, a con artist...a criminal.
1. 001: The Thieves

"This is how we roll out here  
We're packin' heat cause it's cold out here  
Hold your own, don't show no fear  
Or you're gonna lose your soul out here"

-Hollywood Undead, How We Roll

Chapter 001

The Thieves

I wandered through the crowded streets of downtown Vale, the sun beat down on me causing me to have to look down, Damn my light sensitive eyes. My baggy black hoodie pulled was up to hide my face and loose cargo pants to make trying to size me up nearly impossible. I bumped into person after person looking at their pockets, a bulge of a cellphone or a wallet was enough to attract my eyes but after six months of doing this whole thing I had began to take a bit more...selective approach to my targets. Light reflected off the glass of a nearby storefront causing a girl in her early twenties to shield their face after slipping their phone into their pocket.

I smirked at my chance and quickened my pace bumping into the passerby.

"Sorry." I exclaimed, trying to sound as clueless and innocent as possible.

"It's cool." The girl said as she waved at me and turned into a coffee shop, unaware that I had just pocketed her new phone.

"Shit." I swore under my breath as I quickened my pace away from the site of my most recent theft.

Coffee shops were the bane of my existence as a thief. Why you ask? It's simple. What do you do when you wait in line to order your double caramel frappuccino or whatever? Check your phone. What do you do after you order said drink and are waiting for it to be made? Check your phone. What do you do while you drink the drink? You check your phone. And it was this fact that had almost gotten me caught a couple times seeing as how i'd stolen their phones.

Quickly turning a corner into an alleyway, I began to run. I ran towards the other end of the alleyway before kicking off a wall and in a motion so fluid it only looked like one, landed on top of a dumpster before jumping and grabbing onto the ladder bars of a fire escape. Pulling myself up, I quickly made my way up the stairs, occasionally passing a planter where someone was growing flowers. As I reached the roof I didn't stop and began running in the direction of home.

My Converse sneakers kicked up gravel as I jumped between roofs. People always stared at freerunners like they were crazy but they just didn't get it. I'd become addicted to the feeling, the feeling of freefall was one that i'd ever found an equal to. It was the premium rush as Sun had described it and I couldn't agree more as I flung myself building to building, slowly making my way from Downtown to the a district of Vale known as The Mansions.

The Mansions weren't actually mansions which is something that had always lead to some fun nights of hustling tourists who wandered into the district looking for exquisite and impressive houses but only found apartment buildings.

I skidded to a stop on top of one of the near identical buildings in The Mansions and braced myself against the stereotypical entrance to the roof from the apartments below. I gasped due to the fact my lungs are trying to fucking kill me! I sighed as I pounded my chest and began the last of the trek home. As I hopped from roof to roof my head swiveled around as I looked for the flagpole. The building I lived in was the only one with a flagpole in The Mansions and I spotted it mid-jump and saw it was, as usual, flying no flag.

Rerouting myself, I was soon on top of my building's roof and hopped down onto the fire escape. I made my way down the wrought iron fire escape in a series of small jumps and soon got to the window of my apartment. Pressing my hands against the glass, I slid the window up before grabbing the short stick we kept just below the window inside the apartment and propped the window open. Grabbing the floor of the fire escape above me, I swung into the apartment and landed in the living room in one fluid motion.

"You're getting better at that."

I looked up from my position to see Sage in the kitchen on the other side of the main room of the apartment. Sage Ayana was a massive muscular guy, with tattoos that were sometimes difficult to see due to his dark skin. He had piercing golden eyes, similar to an owl, and green hair that stood straight up.

Sage was one of my many roommates and partners in crime and literally one of my partners in crime seeing as how he and the others were the reason I wasn't living in the gutter. Sage was also the secondary cook in the apartment and he was currently preparing a large pot of his spaghetti and I assumed garlic bread too due to the amazing smell wafting from the kitchen.

"What's your haul?" Sage asked as he stirred the pot.

I walked up to the breakfast bar and dumped out my hoodie and jeans pockets, "Three phones and seven wallets."

Sage examined the phones and set them in a net pile before looking at the wallets, "You know the drill Jaune."

I nodded as I pulled all the cash out of all the wallets and began counting it. Sage watched out of the corner of his eye and smiled as I set down the wad of cash, "Two sixty-seven."

Sage smiled as he looked at the pile, "We'll make a thief out of you yet Arc. Maybe it's time to teach you how to lift watches."

"You can't lift a watch."

"Tell Ren that on a good day, all the stock brokers in the business district will be watchless by lunch."

I turned to the apartments open door to see Neptune Vasilias was standing in the doorway, smiling as he looked at Jaune's take for the day, "Nicccce man. You're getting better."

Neptune was a tanned boy with ocean blue eyes and wore his cyan blue hair in an undercut. He wore typical pickpocket clothes as we called em, which were baggy black cargo pants, plenty of pockets for newly acquired items, and a baggy black hoodie.

Sage nodded as he turned back to his spaghetti and Neptune walked into the apartment, shutting the door behind him. Neptune stood next to me and dumped out his hall, seven phones and ten wallets, a slow day for Neptune.

Neptune walked into the living room near the window i'd entered in and sat on their large leather L shaped couch, "God i'm wiped."

"What happened?" I asked as I lean against the breakfast bar.

"I slipped up and some chick caught me with my hand in her pocket so I had to book it up Starling and ditch her on Coast." Neptune explained as he turned on their flat screen that Scarlet had won in a poker game that he had cheated in.

"Lost her in the construction zone?" I asked already knowing the tactic he'd used seeing as how i'd learned it from him.

Neptune nodded as Sage took the garlic bread out of the oven causing Neptune to inhale the smell of butter and garlic, "Isn't it a bit early for dinner?"

"Early is good man, helps keep the weight down." Sage said as he set the pan of garlic bread down and tossed the towel he used as a oven mitt to the side.

"Yes because you know the constant free running, parkour and, just being the kings of thieves in general doesn't help with that."

Jaune watch Sun step through the living room window with a massive smirk on his face and Neptune glared at the muscled, spiky haired, blonde, monkey faunus as Sun continued, "I mean come on, we're awesome. Like, really fuckin awesome."

Sage chuckled as Sun revealed his haul to everyone by dumping it onto the breakfast bar, twelve phones and eighteen wallets. Sun was in the zone today.

"Pretty sure you paid your part of the rent rent today man." Sage commented as he examined the phones.

"I know. I was in the freaking zone today," Sun gloated as he flung himself onto the couch, "Anyone know where Ren and Scarlet are?"

"I think Scarlet was hustling pool down at Hunter's Den." Sage said as he and I collapsed next to our friends on the couch and soon were all drawn into the exploits of Oliver Queen as The Arrow and Barry Allen as The Flash.

"Who the fuck thought Captain Boomerang was a good code name?" Neptune asked jokingly.

"Cisco apparently." I said.

"Ten bucks says Captain Boomerang almost kills Lyla." Sage said a little while later into the episode.

"I'll take some of that action." Sun and Neptune said in unison.

A few moments later Sage was twenty lien richer.

/~/

Everyone's head snapped towards the door to see Scarlet and Ren and Sun paused the exploits of Oliver Queen as the two arrivals collapsed onto the couch with us.

"That. Sucked." Scarlet said as Ren only nodded in acknowledge.

"What happened?" I asked as Ren undid his black ponytail, letting his long black hair fan out.

"You don't want to know." Ren said simply as he rubbed the heels of his hands against his abnormally pink eyes.

Scarlet nodded, causing his strange red undercut to move letting me see his other green eye for once. I shrugged at my friends' vagueness and turned back to Arrow.

"So how was everyone's take?" Sun asked, seeing as how he was the closest thing to a leader in our little crew of thieves.

"Three and seven." I said casually.

"Seven and ten." Neptune said as he responded to a text.

"I hustled a hundred and twenty down at the Hunter's Den." Scarlet said halfheartedly.

"I managed to grab two Rolexs." Ren said in a tone matching his red haired roommate.

"You two were off your game today." Sage commented boredly.

"How much did you make Sage?" Scarlet asked cockily.

"I didn't go out today. I was here waiting for the courier." Sage said before Sun nodded in acknowledgement.

"What courier?" I asked narrowing my eyes at my friends.

Sun rubbed the back of his neck, "It's nothing man. Just some pictures of a place I was thinkin we might hit."

"You don't think it's too soon," Neptune asked, "I mean, our last job was last month."

"I said 'thinkin' man." Sun said calmly.

"Well you know i'm down." Sage said with a smirk.

"I'm in too but I just don't want to get too greedy you know." Neptune said and I couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"There's having greed and being greedy and we need to stick with the first if we want to stay alive." Ren said calmly as he stood and walked into the kitchen and began plating himself dinner.

Greed gets you paid. Greedy gets you in handcuffs. This is something i've learned the hard way, almost being caught by a cop on patrol two months into living with the guys. The November chill managed to seep into the apartment causing all of us to change out of our pickpocketing clothes and into sweatpants and sweatshirts.

We ended up eating all of Sage's spaghetti and garlic bread before chilling for the rest of the night which was a pretty common thing for us seeing as how none of us had day jobs and all went to school together. Sun ran probably one of the greatest cons ever when it came to this whole thing.

Sun had fake IDs made for all of us and had us on the landlords books as college students who all had jobs but had us all on the high school's books as the adopted sons of a wealthy doctor who was currently in Mistral. It's one of the best cons i'd ever seen...granted i'd only known about all of this for six months so my word doesn't mean much.

Everyone slowly drifted from the couch to their bunk and before too long it was only me sitting on the couch, lost in a daze. I shook my head quickly, trying to regain my concentration, and stood up.

I could head to me and Ren's room and head to bed, I probably should but I was drawn outside for some reason and before I knew it I was standing on the roof. The lights of downtown shined bright and easily touched my face as I stared out at them. I blinked my cobalt eyes and couldn't help but think of my friends.

Sun Wukong was the best pickpocket and lockpick of the crew. Scarlet was our hustler, he could always make money in a game of pool or a game of poker or blackjack. Sage was the best fighter and i've been tutored by him for a couple months, mostly because of a certain incident when I lost a day's worth of work all because a guy had a thirty-eight. Neptune was our tech guy, he's magic with a computer and also he had a knack for finding things on the street that were useful to us. Ren was our best when it came to movement. When Sun first said it I was confused but after he explained it it made sense. Ren was the best at getting from one place to another, whether or not it involved free running Ren was best at losing tails, getting lost in crowds and being a ninja in general and I found it awesome.

And then there was me. I wasn't anything special at any of this. Granted i've only been doing this for six months but still...I thought I would have found something I was good at but right now all I could really do was pick pockets and freerun half decently. I sat down on the ledge and let my legs hang freely. It is Saturday so tomorrow I would be heading back to school with the crew. Dammit.

/~/

My eyes snapped open at the sound of a electronic buzzing. The alarm clock. I groaned as I rolled over and looked down from my top bunk down to my bunk mate, "Turn that damn thing off Ren."

Ren's hand shot out and hit the electronic device till the buzzing stopped and groaned. "Pancakes?"

"Please." I said as I hopped down and saw myself in the mirror between mine and Ren's desks, my golden blonde hair was extremely unkempt and sticking out in all directions and my normally vibrant cobalt eyes were a dull blue, like the sea before a storm.

Ren nodded as he slipped out from his bunk and yawned as he padded out of our room and I soon followed behind him. Before too long I was in the shower, washing my hair, my body, shaving. Basic morning things. But it was soon cut short as the door shook from someone banging on it.

"Hurry the fuck up. There are six of us remember?"

Sage. I quickly finished and soon exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist as I made my way to my bedroom. I let the towel fall after the door had closed behind me and walked towards the closest. Me and Ren had spilt the closest evenly and Ren's side was a lot more...stylish, to say the least. I wore simple enough clothes but not simple enough that I stood out and that had helped me more than it had hurt me for sure.

After slipping on boxers I pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans with pre-torn rips in the knees, that I found at Ross for a steal, a white V-neck and a black hoodie. After getting dressed I found the rest of my roommates eating in the kitchen, all different levels of dressed for school. Sun was wearing his faded jeans and black and yellow Converse...but no shirt. Neptune was the only other one fully dressed, wearing a thin red leather jacket with a white T-shirt underneath, black jeans and high tops. Scarlet was wearing a red button up shirt that had the top two buttons undone and no pants. Sage was wearing black jeans and a white tank top as an undershirt. And Ren was wearing his black and green pajamas except he had on a pink apron that said in bold letters, " **PLEASE DO NOTHING TO THE COOK.** "

Ren set two pancakes in front of me and tossed a fork straight into the air and my hand shot out and caught the spinning utensil as everyone finished their breakfast and began finishing getting dressed. As I ate I remembered, once again, why Ren was head chef of the apartment.

Sage soon came out of his and Scarlet's room now wearing a white hoodie and a pair of Doc Martin's. Sun came out wearing white shirt with a design of a black monkey wearing red headphones and eating a yellow banana. Scarlet came out wearing tan jeans and brown boots. And Ren came out wearing a green garrison style jacket with a white undershirt, tan jeans, green and white sneakers and a stylish white scarf.

"Okay. Now that we all look fly as fuck, let's go team." Sun said as he motioned towards the door.

We all walked towards the door but stopped to grab our bags from the closet, slinging my brown messenger bag over my shoulder, I stepped out into the hallway of our apartment building and I was soon followed by my friends. Time for hell.

/~/

We all stepped of the city bus and stared at Signal High. This was Sun's one rule that I didn't get. He wanted all of us to at least finish high school. Fucking weird if you ask me but I wasn't going to go against Sun, not after all he's done for me. So I buckle down like a good solider and try my hardest in this Oum forsaken place but even I had my limits.

I walked into the high school with my crew and I felt eyes on us. Everyone here believed we were well off and also found it strange that we never openly socialize with anyone. No one even knew where we lived apparently. I've ease dropped enough to learn all of this and I honestly didn't care, Sun, Scarlet, Sage, Neptune and Ren had saved me when I was at my worst and I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for them...so let them whisper. I split off from my friends and began towards my first class.

Calculus...dammit all.

I trudged through the hallways tiredly. Watching people pass me by, talking about the winter dance or something else alone those lines. I hadn't been to a dance since I was a freshman and now I was a junior. Wow. Maybe I should go.

Nah. I walked into calculus and walked past the already seated students taking my seat in back to the very right. It looked like your standard math classroom, a projector, the teacher's desk, lots of desks, no posters. Basic but functional. Not bad at all.

The sound of a chair being dragged next to me broke my thoughts and I turned my head to see the closest thing I had to a friend outside of the crew, Ruby Rose.

Ruby Rose was only fifteen, two years younger than me, but had been moved ahead two years and was now in all junior classes due to her academic achievements as Ozpin, our principal, described. I may or may not have ease dropped on a couple of his conversations and Rub had come up. She was the pride of Signal.

"Hey Jaune." She greeted.

Here we go.

"Hey Ruby." I said back, letting the usual edge in my voice disappear.

"Did you do the homework?" She asked as she dug her binder for the class out of her backpack.

"Yep." I said, trying to sound upbeat.

"What did you get for sixteen?" The petite redhead beside me asked.

I dug into my messenger bag and pulled out my binder before flipping to the homework assigned over the weekend and scanning for the question, "Forty-two forty-two."

"I got that too." Ruby said with a smile.

I was about to reply when I was interrupted by the sound of the the door shutting and heels clicking across the classroom floor.

Ding dong the witch is here.

Mrs. Goodwitch cleared her throat and everyone's, including mine, snapped towards the platinum blonde woman. She's an insanely scary and this is coming from a guy who's been shot at by police.

"Everyone get out your homework." the teacher commanded and everyone, unsurprisingly, instantly reached for their bags.

/~/

I mentally killed myself every five minutes before class had ended and by the end I had stabbed myself in the throat three times with a pen, four times with the butterfly knife in my bag, bashed my head open twice and jumped off the top of the building three times. I hate math. A lot. More than anything.

The bell rang and I nearly squealed from happiness. Not a good thing. I wanted people to think I was relaxed and a bit of a dork mostly because I didn't want them to figure out that most of my, scratch that, all of my marketable skills were illegal.

So I feigned a sigh as I stood and stowed my binder into my bag and tossed it over my shoulder as I heard students around me doing the same. The rest of the day is smooth sailing compared to this.

"Hey Jaune I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with me today." Ruby asked as she packed up.

I smiled, whether or not it was genuine was a mystery to me, "Sorry Ruby but I gotta spend what little lunch we have checking on my brothers. They'd be lost without me."

Ruby nodded and smiled, "I get it, I have a sister to watch out for too. Some other time?"

"Maybe. I'll talk to you later Ruby." I said as I left the infernal calculus room and began walking to my favorite class, History. History had always clicked with me, I found it easier to remember names and dates than formulas and equations. Plus Oobleck was pretty decent when he wasn't running around the class faster than a jet. One downside to history was that it was my one class with the biggest asshole in this whole school, Cardin Winchester. Now granted his little quips and remarks didn't hurt me in the slightest, he and his little group were just annoying and a group of thugs. Now granted I stole things and I personally saw myself on a higher moral level than those idiots, constantly terrorizing faunus and people who were too scared to stand up for themselves. I'd been like that once, a long time ago granted, but it'd been in their position.

I trudged though the hallways and soon found myself in history and took my seat near the middle to the left. I smiled as Ren walked in and took his seat next to me. The stoic boy flashed a rare smile at me causing me to look at him confused, "What happened to you?"

"Nothing." The boy said as he smothered his smile.

"It was something Ren and i'll find out."

"Sure." the quiet boy said skeptically as we both took out our notebooks for the class.

Students continued to file into the classroom and soon the bell rang and Dr. Oobleck paced into the room quickly.

"Well students today we shall start our new unit! Today we shall begin to learn about the Human-Faunus War and how it nearly tore our kingdom apart. It was a simply dreadful and bloody period in time but we must learn about it's impact. For if you don't know the past you are destined to repeat it." The green haired teacher said quickly before he rocketed through attendance at break neck speed.

"Please open your textbooks to page one sixty-two." Oobleck said and students reached under their chairs and began pulling our books and flipping to the proper page.

"Please read until the heading, 'The Fall of Fort Temple' then stop and read horoughly because we will discuss what you read." Oobleck said as he sat down at his desk and pulled a thermos out of one of the drawers and poured himself a cup of coffee.

I began reading about the first battle of the Human-Faunus War, which took place in a field, now known as the Field of Revolution, in Eastern Vale when a racist officer stopped a faunus caravan and wrongly accused a faunus of obstructing justice by transporting a criminal that didn't actually exist. The officer was about to execute the faunus when a wolf faunus by the name of Epan Ástasi ran the office through with his own sword. There were only five soldiers so it was no surprise when they were quickly overwhelmed by the caravan. Ástasi soon became the figurehead for the Faunus in the war.

I looked up having read what was required and saw a few other heads up as well, their eyes wandered around the room boredly as time ticked on I began to feel something hitting the back of my neck and I didn't even have to check knowing Cardin was shooting bits of paper at my neck using a rubber band.

Annoying prick.

I stayed quiet as I felt the sting of the paper and had to resist my instinct to punch him in the throat. The stinging didn't stop as Oobleck called the classes attention and began questioning students as he paced around the room.

"What was the name of the officer who ordered the execution? Ms. Schnee." Oobleck asked as he pointed to Weiss Schnee, captain of the soccer team.

"Reginald Blackwell." The heiress of Schnee International answered calmly. With her white hair, ice blue eyes, small frame and pale complexion i'd always thought she looked fragile, like doll meant only for display.

"Who was the faunus who killed Blackwell? Miss Belladonna." Oobleck asked as he nodded to Blake Belladonna.

"Epan Ástasi." The ebony haired girl answered, not lifting her amber eyes away from her book which I could tell was _Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_.

"What killed Blackwell?" Oobleck asked as he motioned to Ren.

"His own sword."

"Mr. Arc. What's the name of the faunus nearly executed?"

Oh please I knew this off the top of my head, "Áskopi Thýma."

"Very good," Oobleck said before narrowing his eyes towards the back of the room, "Mr. Winchester. Why did the officers lose in a battle where they were much more well trained than their enemy."

"Because they're rabid animals." Cardin said smugly and I was forced to swallow my anger.

I saw others in the class bristle with hate as Oobleck scowled at the boy, "See me after class Mr. Winchester. Now does anyone have an actual reason that isn't idiotic?"

Cardin sputtered before Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's half sister, answered, "The officers were extremely outnumbered and their commander was first to die and they fell apart without a head officer."

"Very good miss Xiao Long, now class please read from 'The Fall of Fort Temple' to the end of the chapter." Oobleck said as he sat back down at his desk and began flipping through a book.

/~/

I slumped in my chair at the lunch table that had become the crew's official table as Sun sat next to me and let his tray fall with him, "Today fuckin sucks."

"It's okay." I said as I chewed on my prosciutto sandwich that I had ran off campus to get.

The seat next to me scratched against the linoleum as Neptune sat down with a wrapped sandwich and a soda that he'd gotten from the ala cart before pulling out a small slip of paper and tossing it into the trash.

"Why you gotta do that man," Sun asked, "Girls just want a chance man."

Neptune rolled his eyes as he dug out another number and tossed it, "Don't have time for a relationship."

"Then don't take their numbers, you're just gonna leave em broken hearted." I said as Neptune nodded as he unwrapped his sandwich.

"Where are Sage, Scarlet and Ren?" Sun asked as he began eating his slice of "pizza" which probably wasn't even real seeing as how it came from the school cafeteria.

Two seats scrapped as Sage and Ren soon joined us, both with a wrapped sandwich and a soda. I took another bite of my prosciutto sandwich as Sage and Ren began tearing into their sandwiches as we all shared small talk.

"What's up with you guys? Am I the only one who got pizza?" Sun asked as he took a sip from a water bottle.

"I don't even think that's pizza." Sage said in mild disgust as he glanced at the abomination.

"I have to agree with Sage," Ren commented, "That doesn't look edible."

"You're all crazy." Sun said as he took another bite. Scarlet joined us a moment later, lunch less, and sat down before looking like he was lost in thought.

"Okay guys. This is kind of a weird question but I need you to answer it as best you can." Scarlet said with un-Scarlet like conviction.

"What's up Scar?" Neptune asked staring at his friend.

"Do babies float?"

There was a shocked silence before anyone even considered reacting.

"Jesus Christ" I muttered as Neptune began laughing so hard he fell out of his chair and Sage soon joined him, rolling on the floor almost in tears from laughter.

"You're so fucking stupid." Sun said in a shell shocked tone.

"I'm never going to let you have children." Ren said calmly, with finality in his voice.

"But-"

"Ever!"

I laughed for a moment before ending up in a coughing fit and hacking out my response mid cough, "Yes babies"-coughing-"float."

"Why the fuck would you even ask that?" Sage asked as he climbed back into his chair mid-laugh.

"Well, I know water birth is a thing so I was wondering if babies naturally floated or if the doctor had to, like, catch them after the came out." Scarlet explained as Neptune climbed back into his chair.

"Of course babies float dumbass." Sun said as he took another sip of water.

I chuckled as I finished my sandwich and looked over to Sun as he cleared his throat, "So, has everyone made rent for the month?"

"Making rent" was a term used by us that didn't just cover rent but also our sixth of the cable bill, (which was really just Wi-Fi) our sixth of the food budget, and our portion of the rent. Anything extra we made was ours to keep and spend as we wanted. I nodded, "Yesterday."

Ren shook his head slightly, "After yesterday's...mishap, I didn't have time to so i'll go out tomorrow."

Sage also shook his head, "I planned on heading out today."

"I hit my quota." Neptune said as he looked down at his cellphone.

Scarlet nodded, "I finished yesterday."

Sun nodded as he examined his crew, "Nice nice. Well I finished yesterday so i'm in the clear."

"We should invest in a car." I suggested casually.

Sun nodded, "It would make getting groceries and stuff easier. But…"

"Convertible." Scarlet said out of nowhere.

"Fuck no! What if it rains? Sedan." Neptune said in retaliation.

"You realized there are six of us right!? We should get a van." Sage shouted.

My head started spinning as everyone gave their two cents on the subject and I slowly began to realize why we had to take the city bus to school. I smirked as I leaned back in my chair.

We're gonna be here awhile.

/~/

I wearily trudged into my room, letting my backpack fall to the floor, I climbed up onto my bed and laid face down. I was tired, mentally and physically and Ren walking into our room after me was the only thing keeping me from slipping into unconsciousness. My hand hung off my bed and Ren slapped it.

"Ow." I said into my mattress.

"Jaune, I understand that you're doing this whole I'm-angry-at-almost-everything...thing but you need to get out more, meet people, do things besides steal." Ren said calmly.

"Why would I when I have you guys? You're the only people I don't have to lie to or fake anything. You guys have-...you've been there for me when no one else was." I said as I sat up, my head rubbing against the ceiling slightly.

"I understand Jaune, and anyone else who has gone through what you have would be acting the exact same way but you need to get out there," Ren said as he began changing, "What about Ruby? She's nice and from what I hear she's plenty smart."

I groaned as I fell to my side, "Ruby's okay but I just don't…"

"What? Trust her," Ren asked exasperatedly, "Am I the only one who finds the fact that the only people you seem to trust are thieves ironic?"

"There's honor among thieves Ren...but out there, nothing." I said as I rolled over.

"Jaune...get some rest." Ren said as he padded out of the room and shut the door behind him.

I closed my eyes and felt sleep ambush me as my mind slipped into darkness...and my memories.

/~/

 _I huddled in the dark alleyway Downtown. Rain fell, soaking my hoodie. I had just ran from my most recent foster home, a drunk and a drug addict, parents of the year. I pulled my knees up to my chest and breathed in ragged breaths. My chest hurt from where a baseball bat that had been wielded by the drunken foster father. I turned my head to the side and spit out a mouthful of salty blood. I leaned my head back against the brick building behind me and took a deep breath._

 _Steel yourself Jaune. Focus on this moment and this moment alone._

 _I focused on my current situation. I was broke, homeless, in unimaginable amounts of pain and to top it all off, it was raining. Great._

 _I felt a single tear fall down my face as I thought of my mother, the selfish bitch who abandoned me. My father...the bastard who helped her. I felt my heart ache at the thoughts of them, my parents, the ones who were supposed to shield me from harm, threw me right into the fray of the city when I was twelve. I soon made my way into the foster system and then out, then in again, then out again, then in again. Six foster homes in total._

 _I heard puddles splashing down the alleyway and the sound of heavy breathing as I saw someone in a dark hoodie and pants approximately my size running down the alleyway, and I saw two flashlights bobbing in the shadows. The figure in dark clothes tore off their hoodie revealing blonde spiky hair and golden eyes as he crashed into a seating position next to me, hiding the hoodie behind him, showing off his white long sleeve shirt._

" _Stay quiet." He commanded as the lights grew closer and I realized who the lights belonged to._

 _Cops._

 _I watched as the two uniformed cops ran passed me and the other blonde boy. Not thinking that the boy may have sat next to me in a successful attempt to blend in. The blonde next to me smiled after a moment before jumping into the air laughing, "Jesus that was close! You should have seen it! Those cops were chasing me for like an hour, you saved my ass man thanks."_

" _It's okay." I croaked out and the blonde's smile disappeared as he examined me._

" _You okay man? You look a little worse for the wear." The blonde commented as he cocked his head at me._

" _More than a little."_

 _The blonde smiled down at me and offered his hand, "I'm Sun, Sun Wukong"_

 _I hesitantly took Sun's hand and groaned as he helped me up, "Arc. Jaune Arc."_

" _Well Jaune what do you say to me giving you a warm bed, hot meal...for a small price that is." Sun said with a small smile._

" _What's that?" I asked as I suppressed my anger, knowing I couldn't pay any amount of money._

" _Tell me your story."_

 _I was shocked. Surprised. And for the first time in four years. Hopeful. "I can do that."_

 **AN: Hello all and welcome to Arc Among Thieves it's honestly a story idea I got out of nowhere and had the urge to write so i'm kinda half cocked as in ships and plot but I will figure both those out but if you have any suggestions please leave a review especially with ships. Please? Pretty please? Nicccce. So please follow, favorite to keep updated with the story and leave a review telling me what you think I love hearing from you guys. Stay cool everyone and live out loud.**

 **P.S. Cover art is from clucaris on Tumblr.**


	2. 002: The Fence

"Give em hell, turn their heads  
Gonna live life 'til we're dead.  
Give me scars, give me pain  
Then they'll say to me, say to me, say to me  
There goes the fighter, there goes the fighter."

Gym Class Heroes, The Fighter feat. Ryan Tedder

Chapter 002

The Fence

I looked down at the traffic from the top of the construction zone on Coast. The zone itself was practically abandoned due to the company building a office building here ran low on funds so the construction was on hiatus which was good for us and made it the perfect getaway route for pretty much anything. I sat on the red iron I beam, staring down at the traffic below. It was late and I should've been in bed for school tomorrow but nightmares plagued me like almost every other night .

I ran a hand through my blonde hair, pushing it back, fully revealing my eyes. People always seemed to like my eyes. The deep cobalt was unnerving to me but "cute" and "pretty" to almost everyone else.

I knew I wasn't the most terrible looking guy on the planet and when I cleaned up correctly I looked kinda good looking but I only did that on major cons. When I needed a good smile more than anything but usually, cons come down to one thing. Lying. Which is something I was good at even before I became a thief.

I smiled as I rose, standing on a surface about as wide as my sneakers seventy feet off the ground was a bit scary at first and granted if I fell I would for sure die but hey, details.

/~/

I opened the door of the apartment and immediately heard yelling, " **SWISS FUCKING CHEESE GOD DAMMIT!** "

I narrowed my eyes at Sun who was sitting on the couch holding an Xbox One controller and the blonde monkey faunus turned to me as I walked in, "I've been doing this Raid for three hours."

"That's what you get for maining a Titan scrub." Neptune commented for the kitchen as he made a sandwich.

"Like your Warlock is any better noob." Sun commented as he respawned.

Neptune scoffed, "My subclass is way better then yours. Stormclaller for life."

"Fuck you," Sun commented as he got the last hit on the boss, "It's moments like this when I love Sunbreaker."

"Hunter. Gunslinger. Get wrecked." I said as I fell onto the couch next to Sun.

"Wait for it...i'm gonna get it this time I know it." Sun said as he stood up, waiting for drops.

"He's been trying to get the Helm of Inmost Light for three hours." Scarlet said as he stared walked into the living room and leaned against the couch.

"I can feel it. This is the one," Sun said as he examined his drops, " **YES! FUCK YES! FUUUUUUCK YEEEESSSS!** "

"I think he got it." I said as I watched Sun dance around our living room like a moron.

I stood up and wandered into my room and began changing into my pajamas. I couldn't help but think about Ren's words yesterday.

" _Jaune, I understand that you're doing this whole I'm-angry-at-almost-everything...thing but you need to get out more, meet people, do things besides steal."_

What Ren said was impossible for me. Even I could tell how deeply rooted my trust issues are and I didn't care. Trust is earned and the price for my trust skyrocketed.

I stared at myself in the mirror, scars of all different shapes and sizes covered my chest and stomach. Abusive foster parents and living on the streets hasn't treated me well to say the least. I remember the first time the guys saw them...they were surprised to say the least.

I slipped on a white tank top to accompany my plaid blue pajama pants and climbed up into my bed. Tomorrow was Friday so I would be able to clear my head after school the best way I knew. I begrudgingly climbed into my bunk. I'm not even tired just...bored I guess. Maybe I should get a laptop or something. Neptune had the only one in the apartment with a laptop along with his desktop.

I looked down at Ren's alarm clock and saw the time. Nine fifty-eight. I was out late apparently granted it wasn't that big of a deal but still I want to function normally in the morning so sleep was necessary. The door opened and Ren walked into the room and began changing into his black pajama pants and green V-neck.

"Jaune."

"What Ren?" I asked as I stared at my ceiling.

"It's been three days." Ren said simply as he climbed into his bunk.

"I know." I said as I shifted to my side.

"Do I have to force you to socialize with others?" Ren asked slightly exasperatedly.

"Probably." I replied sarcastically as I closed my eyes.

/~/

I leaned back in my chair tiredly. I was in, wait for it, calculus. The bane of my existence as a student. Five minutes left in this god awful class and I could go to a class that might actually service me in the foreseeable future. Might being the key word seeing as it is history but at least I enjoy it.

The bell rang quicker than I imagined and I immediately started packing up. There apparently is a god. I tossed my binder into my bag and slung it over my shoulder and turned to leave but was greeted by a certain petite redhead in my path.

"Uh, hey Ruby. What's up?" I asked after she didn't move.

"You're spending lunch with me and my friends." Ruby said as she adjusted her backpack.

"I'd love to but-"

"And don't tell me your brothers need you because you've been giving me that excuse for all of this week and the week before that." Ruby said as she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Listen Ruby. I'd love to but-" I began and then I was cut off as she did...it.

Fuck fuck fuck. Abort mission. Abort mission. Arc is going down. I repeat, Arc is going down. Send air support. Goddammit, what the fuck. Why?!

Ruby was pouting. Pouting. She had mentally brought me to my knees, by fucking pouting. I need help. Serious. Fucking. Help. Almost unwillingly, like I had no control of my actions, I said, "Okay."

"Really? Awesome." She said with a smile that lit up the room before walking out of the classroom.

Dammit.

/~/

Throughout history class i'd developed a plan. I would leave campus all of lunch as stealthily as possible then tell Ruby that I couldn't find her. Yeah. Great plan Jaune. I went about my classes normally until lunch and sprang my plan into action, making my way to the closest exit.

Closest exit was passed the english hall and I heard a laugh as I passed the entrance to the hall. A very familiar laugh. Fuck.

"Hey Jaune." Ruby greeted as she walked up to me.

I'm not as smart as I thought I was.

"Hey Ruby." I greeted trying not to strain my voice.

"Ready?" The petite redhead asked as she linked arms with with me.

No. "Yeah."

Ruby lead threw the school by my arm and I could feel eyes on me. Granted I was in a slightly compromising position, being dragged through the school by a fifteen year old girl who had her arm linked to mine like an old fashioned couple. Wait, did we look like a couple?

I let the question fester as I was dragged into the lunch room and saw my friends staring and smirking at me. My only hope. "Help me." I mounted desperately.

Ren shook his head with a grin on his face and stared daggers at him. That little- that son of a- je tuerai ce connard!

I turned my head to what I assumed was Ruby's table, full of all girls...son of a bitch. I did a quick count of who was there. Yang Xiao Long, super protective older sister, so looks like i'm gonna be play twenty questions. Pyrrha Nikos, star athlete and part time model, should be able to handle anything she throws my way. Blake Belladonna, quiet girl and reader of books, shouldn't be a problem. Weiss Schnee, captain of the soccer team and heiress to Schnee Consolidated, might give me the run around but I doubt it. Nora Valkyrie, little ball of energy like Ruby, should be fine.

The girls looked at me as Ruby dragged me towards them and I felt my resolve waver. Why must I be social? Why?

"Girls. This, is Jaune." Ruby introduced me, not unlinking her arm from mine. What the what?

"Hello." Pyrrha greeted politely, as I expected.

"Hey." I greeted as Ruby finally let go of my arm with a slight blush and sat down.

I sat next to her, mostly for my own safety, and pulled a sandwich out of my bag. I could feel them all staring at me, I was a whole new level of uncomfortable to say the least.

I nearly choked on my sandwich when Yang finally broke the silence, "So Jaune. You've been here in Vale for six months right?"

"Yeah."

"Where were you before that?" Blake asked, not looking up from her book.

"A orphanage in south Mistral. Dr. Apomi adopted me while he was opening a clinic over there." I lied. A lie that was almost a carbon copy of the lies the rest of the crew told about where we came from.

The usual looks of pity followed my lie and I calmly ate my sandwich, unfazed by their looks. I was getting even better at lying. Ruby began eating her lunch as small talk enveloped the table and I instantly felt out of place, as usual.

Why am I even here? I could just get up and leave. Why don't I? Cause it'd upset Ruby? Was that it? I think so but I don't even know. I just want to eat my lunch and get this whole thing over with.

/~/

I walked into the apartment with the crew mid-rant, "And I swear to god if anything like that happens ever again i'm going to kill all of you in your sleep."

"You done?" Neptune asked as he went into the kitchen and pulled out a soda.

"I don't even know what you're getting so worked up about," Sun said as he sat on the couch and Scarlet started up the Xbox, "It was just lunch."

"It was the most awkward hour of my life." I deadpanned.

"Why? They're all pretty chill, well...maybe not Weiss but most of them are cool." Sage said from the kitchen.

"I'm just- i'm not good with people for extended periods of times." I said defensively.

"You're great during cons." Ren commented.

What the hell? Are they ganging up on me? "That's a single concentrated lie that's been planned out by the six of us. This lying to six _girls_. You know, the gender of our species who seem to be like fucking lie detectors, on the fly of all things."

"Would it be so bad to actually talk to people? Or I don't know, get a girlfriend?" Scarlet asked as he rode around Venus on on a Sparrow.

"And lie to them constantly?" I asked exasperatedly.

"Like its any different from how we live now? At least that way you'll be relaxed and not so fucking stressed out." Neptune countered.

These guys are ganging up on me. What the fuck? "I'm fine." I insisted.

"No one living the way we do is fine Jaune. You need an escape." Sage said.

"Okay enough! All of you!" Sun shouted as he stood up and flung his arms out.

I took a deep breath. A really deep breath. Neptune walked and stood in front of me for a moment before setting his hand against my shoulder, "With everything you've been through I understand your hesitation about letting people in. But it won't get better if you don't try and help in get better."

Sun walked over and gestured to me, "Come on. Time you met our fence."

I shrugged off Neptune's hand as Sun reached under the kitchen sink and pulled out a duffle bag. Sun slung the bag over his shoulder and I walked towards the door.

/~/

Me and Sun stepped off the bus somewhere in the Lantern District. Better known as the district where every bar, club, movie theater and anything else that may be entertaining was located. We began walking down Verdant toward...somewhere.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we continued to walk.

"Ever been to a club called Wilt and Blush?" Sun asked.

"Yeah cause i'm the clubbing type." I said sarcastically

"What's got you in a shitty mood?" Sun asked.

I sighed angrily as we crossed the street. What's got me in a bad mood? My friends? No because despite how much I don't want to admit it they may be right. Me? Probably.

"Nothing." I breathed out as Sun stopped in front of a warehouse type building.

"Time to meet our fence boi." Sun said as he walked through two already open massive sliding metal double doors.

"You sound like Scarlet." I said as I followed him.

"Fuck you." Sun said as they exited what looked like a between room between the outside and the club itself.

We entered the massive club with the bar against the back wall with a staircase that lead to what I guess is an office. Concrete floors, DJ station to the left wall the rest of it was typical club crap, strobe lights and all that. I saw a man by the bar in a red casual button up with the sleeves rolled up slightly unbuttoned to reveal a black tank top underneath, black jeans and Vans.

The man was on the phone and continued talking as me and Sun approached. The man had spiky red hair with horns protruding from his hair and emerald eyes and was clearly a whole new level of pissed off, looking like a fighter mid-match.

"No you listen to me you rat fuck! No i'm not being racist you stupid prick! Ababababa shut up. If I catch another one of your dealers trying to sling your shit in my club again I swear I will come down to your little hole in the wall and show you the wrath of god mother fucker! Believe that!"

Jaune watched as the man's cellphone sailed across the club and smashed into the wall, shattering instantly. The man instantly looked regretful, "That was a brand new phone."

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Dammit all." The man looked up at me and Sun and took a deep breath. "Sun and...Jaune I assume."

Me and Sun approached the...bull faunus? Was he a bull faunus? It'd be rude to ask so i'm gonna not do that.

The man held out his hand to me and I took it, shaking hands he introduced himself, "My name is Adam Taurus."

"Arc. Jaune Arc." I replied as we shook hands.

"So your Sun's new guy. Like what you've done so far." Adam said as he leaned back against the bar.

"Thanks." I said as Sun unslung the bag from his shoulder.

"All of em?" Adam asked as Sun held out the bag.

"We all have phones. We don't need any more." Sun said as Adam set the bag against the bar and and opened it revealing a good hundred cell phones, mostly smartphones.

"You six are geniuses." Adam complimented.

"Nah. Just a couple guys with fast hands." Sun said as he hopped up onto the bar. "So what was the deal with that phone call?"

"So this bastard wannabe drug kingpin tries to pay me off a few weeks ago, allow him to sell in my club. I said no fucking way, this is a legitimate business. So what does he do? He sent in his dealers anyway. If the cops find out that dealers frequent my club i'm fucked, so before you came in I was politely telling this fuck that if I catch another one of his dealers that i'm going to slaughter his entire family."

"Woah!" I exclaimed at the tone shift of Adam's story. That went from zero to a hundred real fuckin quick.

"Before becoming a club owner and fence, Adam was one of the most feared guns for hire on Remnant." Sun explained as Adam reached behind him and unholstered two of the most beautiful pistols i've ever seen.

Two black Beretta M9s one with red accents throughout the gun and one with white accents. Adam smiled fondly as he twirled the pistols on his index fingers. "Boys meet my partners in crime and wives. Wilt and Blush."

"Thought polygamy was illegal." I commented humorously.

"Oh Jaune you don't understand. Me, Wilt, Blush. We're in love," Adam said before laughing, "You ever shot a gun Jaune?"

I shook my head. I knew we had four pistols in the apartment for jobs where they needed to take out cameras manually or just in case anything happened. I knew there was a Colt 1911 in mine and Ren's room, a Glock 45 in Scarlet and Sage's room, another Glock in Sun and Neptune's room, and a Smith and Wesson .357 in the kitchen. Granted, we are thieves and pickpockets but you can never be too careful about this life. I'd seen where all the guns were but never had to fired any of them fortunately.

Sun nodded towards Adam, "Adam was the one who taught us all to shoot. Just in case anything happens and we need to."

"I pray that you never have to take a live Jaune. It's not a good experience." Adam said simply as he holstered his pistols behind his back.

"Adam!" A girl's voice called.

"Shit." Adam whispered as he reached behind himself and zipped up the bag.

Blake Belladonna walked into the club and slowed her pace as she saw me and Sun, "Jaune? Sun? What are you doing here?"

Sun pulled through on the fly, "Dr. Apomi wanted to make a donation to Wilt and Blush for what they're doing by giving young faunus jobs."

"Your foster father is interested in clubs?" the ebony haired girl asked.

I had Sun's back. "Actually he's more interested in helping people and he hopes this donation will allow Adam here to continue his support of the faunus community."

The bow wearing girl looked at me with a look in her eye I couldn't identify and nodded, "Ah. Well, Adam i'll be in the office."

Blake soon was walking up the stairs and into the office and Adam sighed, "I see you've both met my sister."

"Blake's your sister?" I asked.

"Well legally yes, when we were younger, living on the street I had finally made enough money to buy us legitimate papers we listed each other as siblings," Adam explained as he patted the bag, "I'll get these to my tech guy, have him wipe the data and get them to the usual pawn shops and bring you guys the cash after my ten percent."

"Of course." Sun said as he nodded and Adam turned to me.

"Good to meet you Jaune. Come by some time and we'll start teaching you the basics about shooting." Adam said as he lifted up the bag.

/~/

I laid down on my bed and stared up at the white ceiling and a single thought was rushing through my head.

" _Jaune, I understand that you're doing this whole I'm-angry-at-almost-everything...thing but you need to get out more, meet people, do things besides steal."_

No I don't. No I fucking don't...I don't. I don't need anyone besides my crew. I don't...god it's getting harder to keep saying that over and over again. I mean, am I trying to convince others or myself at this point. Fuck me. Why does life have to be so goddamn weird.

All the world needs is me. I got my values...so you can keep yours, alright? It's something i've always said, I just don't get people. The door swung open and Ren walked in and was soon in his bunk under mine.

"Ren."

"Yeah?"

"You're a fucking asshole."

"I know," Ren said, suppressing a laugh, "How'd the meet with Adam go?"

"Did he name his club after his guns or his guns after his club?" I asked as I stared at the ceiling, hands laced behind my head.

"The first one...I think." Ren said in his usual sober tone.

"Did he really teach all of you to shoot?" I asked.

"Yeah. He's been a real help to us all." Ren said as he chuckled softly.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, just remembering when Scarlet shot himself in the foot when he was learning to shoot." Ren said as he chuckled again.

"How stupid is he?" I asked surprised.

"He's not actually stupid. He just says stupid shit and does stupid things." Ren explained as the clock struck eleven. November air chilled the inside of our room and I sighed softly as the cool air coated my body even though I wrapped in blankets.

"Ren?"

"Yeah Jaune?"

"Are we...are we bad people?"

Ren hesitated for a moment, "Well...we're not the best people but I wouldn't say we're bad. We steal to survive, we don't do it for fun."

"That's for sure." I deadpanned.

"Jaune."

"Hm?"

"We are outlaws but only people who live outside the law have reason to fear us," Ren said in a wise tone.

"I enjoy our late night talks." I said sarcastically.

"As do I." Ren said, letting loose a small laugh.

"Night Ren."

"Goodnight Jaune."

I closed my eyes and was slowly taken to the realm of sleep and god was it satisfying after the day i've had.

/~/

" _They sounds tough man." Sun said as I finished the bit of food i'd had in eight days._

 _Sun had asked for my story and I told it to him. No lies. I don't know why but I had a feeling that if I did lie he would've been able to tell. I looked down at empty plate in front of me while Sun paced in the kitchen, deep in thought._

 _I teetered on the bar stool in front of the breakfast bar as Sun crouched under and reached under the kitchen sink and pulled out...a gun._

 _The silver revolver was beautiful in a way and as Sun set the gun in front of me I could only stare at it. I could read an engraving along the barrel, Smith and Wesson. The black grip looked molded to fit in someone's hand and I continued to stare at the deadly weapon as Sun spoke, "You've been through a lot Jaune and I understand that deep down or maybe not even that deep down that you want to hurt the people who hurt you. Pick up the gun."_

 _I picked up the revolver, it was loaded. At least as far as I could tell seeing as how it felt heavier than I imagined in my hands. Sun neatly placed six rounds in front of me and leaned forward propped up by his arms, "If you want to hurt them for an instant, take these bullets, take that gun and hurt them."_

 _Was he...was he telling me to kill them? Kill someone? Could I even do that?_

" _But, if you want to hurt them until the day they die. Put down that gun and let us show you how to become something greater than a street rat or some thug with a gun."_

 _I stared at the revolver. It felt even heavier now. How heavy would it be after I killed someone? I shook my head and set down the gun and Sun smiled, "I knew you'd make the right choice Jaune. I can see it in your eyes."_

 _I nodded feebly as Sun gathered up the gun and bullets before setting his hand on my shoulder, "The couch is yours for tonight. Tomorrow we start."_

" _One last question."_

" _Hm?"_

" _Us?"_

 _Sun laughed. "You'll meet the rest of the crew tomorrow. Head to sleep Jaune."_

 _And I did. I laid down on the leather couch and for the second time that night, felt hopeful._

 **AN: I'm genuinely surprised that I managed to get this out so quickly and i've reached a decision on ships. I'm either going to do Jaune and Ruby (Lancaster) or Jaune and Blake (Black Knight? Is it called Black Knight? Screw it point is I may do it.) I'll decide as I get farther into the store. Now don't get me wrong, I like reading Jaune and Yang, but I don't think i'd enjoy writing it as much as I do reading it. Anyway I know that the scene at the end was a bit dark but it was necessary so I could show that despite the guns the guys aren't killers and don't use them this isn't Grand Theft RWBY. (That's a joke. I enjoy Grand Theft RWBY for the most part.) Sorry if I got some Destiny terminology wrong I haven't played since Destiny 1.0 and I can't play seeing as how I don't have Wi-Fi. (I write on my phone and use my data by the way which is why I don't do actual line breaks and use /~/ instead) Also Jaune's little bout of foreign language was French for "I'll kill that bastard." Oh finally, Adam. Adam is clearly different in this, mostly because I hate what RT has done with him because I personally always wanted him to be an anti-hero type character. (Also, Wilt and Blush, the club, is based off Verdant from Arrow...I was watching it again while writing this chapter) Anyway guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and make sure you follow and favorite to say update on the story and leave feedback in a review. Stay cool everyone and live at loud.**


	3. 003: The Cracks

"Don't hold back, crash into me  
We catching fire like a third degree  
Need someone to hold, sick of being alone  
So I'm roundin' third and I'm coming home."

-Jake Miller, Collide

Chapter 003

The Cracks

"My chest hurts, my arms hurt, my legs hurt." Neptune complained as I acted as his spotter for lifting weights in the gym of our high school that was kind enough to let students use gym facilities during weekends.

"Dude. You haven't even done a set." I deadpanned.

"How much is in a set again?" Neptune wheezed.

"Twelve reps." I said as I let my hands hover under the bar, just in case Neptune's hand slipped so the bar didn't go crashing into his throat and or rib cage.

"How many have I done?"

"Four."

"God i'm out of shape." Neptune said as he pushed the bar up and easing it back down.

"How you manage that is beyond me," I said, "You know, with all the running and climbing."

"I don't climb." Neptune said as he tried to push through the set.

"How do you not climb? Literally half of freerunning is climbing." I said in probably one of the most confused tones of my life.

"I just don't." Neptune said defensively as his arms shook under the weight of the bare bar.

I sighed at my friend. "You're doing one more set before we leave."

"But-"

"One more set pool noodle!"

"Pool noodle?" Neptune sputtered out.

"Did I stutter? Get to pumping!" I shouted, trying to motivate my cyan haired friend.

It worked and I was soon satisfied with Neptune's work out. Thank god it's finally over. "Okay that should be good. Let's head home."

Neptune set the bar to its position and slid out from under it and sat up, remaining on the bench. "I can feel muscles I didn't even know I had."

"Good. That's called progress." I said as I threw him a towel.

"No its called me taking a cold shower once we get back." Neptune said as he began wiping sweat off him.

I slung my workout bag over my shoulder and adjusted my orange tank top and black basketball shorts as Neptune stood up and tossed the towel into his own bag. Neptune's own maroon colored V-neck and black shorts were drenched with sweat.

Picking up his own bag, Neptune and I exited the weight room and soon stood at the bus stop and I couldn't help but bring up something that had been eating at me. "Neptune...about yesterday...there's no hard feelings right?"

The cyan haired boy leaned against the pole of the bus stop and sighed. "I understand where you're coming from Jaune and I know just how deep your trust issues go but you can't expect them to get better if you don't get to know people."

Yeah but while I get to know them I have to lie to them about almost every aspect of my life...amazing. "And god knows i'll enjoy lying the whole time."

"Are you being sarcastic?" Neptune asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"When am I _not_ being sarcastic?" I asked humorously.

Neptune and I laughed and Neptune slowly trailed off as he stared at the late November morning sky. "Listen i'm not saying you have to have a whole group of friends or anything, you already have us. I'm just asking for you to find someone who will put you at ease, even if it's for a little while, I don't care if it's a friend or a girlfriend...or a boyfriend-"

"No."

"Okay just checkin'." Neptune said with a smirk.

Sometimes I forget that Neptune can be a sarcastic little fuck. But eh, I can handle his little bouts of douchery no problem. I have had multiple months of training after all. The bus soon arrived and we were soon on our way home.

Neptune and I say next to each other for the fairly short bus ride back to our block and were walking back to our building when it started to drizzle. Neptune stuck his hand out as raindrops began to pool in his palm. "It wasn't supposed to rain today."

I stared up and saw that the sky had descended into a gray color and I blinked as a raindrop landed directly in my eye. We soon arrived at our building and walked into the elevator. We arrived at our floor and entered our apartment a few moments later to see their friends gathered around their coffee table playing a card game.

"How did I lose my virginity?" Sun read as he drew the black card from the deck.

I watched as Scarlet, Sage and Ren shuffled threw their white cards before setting them down in front of Sun. Sun picked up the first white card and read it aloud, "Seventy-two virgins. So unoriginal."

Sun threw the white card to the side and read the next one, "What would Jesus do?"

"Get nailed." I said as I walked past my friends and into my room only to hear them exploding in laughter as I shut my door. How did I want to spend my Saturday? Tis the question on my mind to say the least. I grabbed a white long sleeve V-neck and slightly ripped jeans before wandering into the bathroom. Turning on the hot water I stripped out of my workout clothes and climbed into the shower. Toohottoohottoohottoohot. My hand darted out and jerked to cold water handle to the side, cooling the temperature. I let the warm water wash away the sweat from my work out and began washing my hair while trying to get a punk remix of In My Head unstuck in my head.

In my head, I see you all over me. In my head, you fulfill my fantasy. In my head, you'll be screaming more. In my head, it's going down. In my head, it's going do- no goddammit! Get the fuck out. Get the fuck out of my head Mayday Parade. As I battled the internal conflict of having that song stuck in my head I washed my body, and due to Ren's _excellent_ shopping choices i'm going to smell like tropical forest. Perfect.

I turned off the shower and dried off before throwing on the white long sleeve V-neck and slightly ripped jeans and strode out of the bathroom feeling pretty good despite smelling like a freaking fruit basket, granted it was nothing cologne couldn't fix. The crew was still playing Cards Against Humanity so I walked back into my room and slid on my Chuck Taylor's and black hoodie. I wanted coffee to be honest and seeing as how I also needed to stock up on somethings, shopping seemed like a good use of my Saturday.

/~/

I stepped off the bus stop and into the Shopping district which, as the name suggested, was full of stores of all kinds and a massive mall. Coffee, coffee, coffee...where can I get some coffee. Pulling up a map on my phone I found out that the closest coffee shop was a Starbucks two blocks away. I slowly began on my trek to the Starbucks and put my phone on airplane mode so I could properly enjoy my day alone.

I was soon standing in line in the coffee shop, waiting for some blonde in yoga pants and a spray tan to order her drink. Before long I was borderline ready to punch this bitch in the throat so I could get my caramel frappuccino and whatever breakfast thing they had today and get on with my shit. But nooooooooo, fuck that plan because this chick couldn't decide how many shots of caffeine she fucking wanted. I could almost hear Ode to Joy play when she finally made her decision and the line started moving at a normal pace again.

Before long I was sitting next to a window, drinking my frappuccino, and eating some kind of egg, ham, bacon croissant sandwich thing...yeah...that. I mindlessly flicked through my phone, acting similarly to one of my targets. I was halfway through my coffee and had finished my sandwich when I felt heard the chair next to me scrape against the floor and heard a familiar voice. "Hi Jaune."

Ruby smiled as I turned to her. I seriously can't catch a break but I didn't want to upset the girl so I smiled back, "Hey Ruby."

Ruby was wearing a white V-neck, red cardigan, faded blue capris, and simple brown boots. She looks cute...wait, where did that come from? I mean she does...but I didn't really stop to notice that before. God, Neptune is getting to me, keep your shit together Arc.

Ruby had an iced coffee and a huge chocolate chip cookie and began eating the dessert as she spoke to Jaune. "So what are doing today?"

"Just picking up some stuff. Razor blades, deodorant, stuff like that." I said as I sipped the cold coffee.

"I was out with Weiss and Yang but they headed home and I still needed to get somethings but I saw you heading in here and you were alone so I thought you might like some company." Ruby said with an innocent smile that I, frankly, didn't deserve.

I smiled at the petite redhead, "I'd love company."

And I wasn't lying. I meant it. It felt nice to tell the truth. Ruby gave me another smile and felt my heart beat a little faster. I don't even know why exactly but I brushed it off and continued sipping my frappuccino.

/~/

"So you were born in Southern Mistral?" Ruby asked as we walked through the Target.

"Yep. Born in the Dragon's Stomach." I said as I turned into the hygiene aisle.

"The what?" Ruby asked in confusion.

I pulled up a map of Mistral on my phone and zoomed in on the left side of the continent. "See that?" I asked as I traced my finger over a section of Mistral known as the Dragon.

Ruby nodded as she looked at the map. "It does kinda look like a dragon."

"I'm from here." I said as I pointed to a section of the Dragon near the middle jutting into the massive lake inside the continent itself that had an island near it's left side.

"And it's called the Dragon's Stomach?" Ruby asked as she looked at Jaune's phone.

"It's slang for the whole region. I was actually born in Romulus on July 12th." I said. I just told her my birthday and where I was born...that's a start right? Right?

"That's so cool. Vale doesn't have any cool nicknames for any places." Ruby said as I slid my phone into my pocket.

"We were happy in Romulus, then…"

"We? You and your parents? But I thought you were from a orphan...oh," Ruby said as she looked away sadly, "I'm so sorry."

"They're not dead Ruby...they um…"

"Jaune you don't have to talk-"

"I was abandoned Ruby...by my own family. My mom and dad…"

"Oh Jaune." Ruby said softly as she hugged me, which was kind of awkward seeing as I was significantly taller than her.

I let her ride out the hug and I knew I should be feeling some type of anguish about dragging up the memories of my parents but with someone holding me close, it was softened a bit. I didn't feel so...alone? Is alone the right word? I don't know. I'm just...i'm confused.

Ruby let go of me, realizing that the male hygiene section wasn't exactly the place to be comforting a friend. We were soon back to small talk as I picked up what I needed to.

"You wear cologne," Ruby asked as I grabbed the small black bottle and she read it, "Neve Pura."

"It's from North Mistral. It means pure snow." I translated as I set the bottle in my basket.

"You speak North Mistralian?" Ruby asked as we walked.

"I was born there after all. I'm also pretty good in South Mistralian." I said letting my pride take over. I'd always had a knack for languages but unfortunately they were rarely used anymore, even by the people who spoke them originally.

"What's South Mistralian sound like?" Ruby asked as I set my basket on the conveyor belt in front of the cash register.

"Vous avez de beau yeux d'argent." I said I dug out my wallet to pay for my things.

"What's that mean?" Ruby asked with a curious look on her face.

"It means you're a total dork." I said as I patted her head with a cocky smirk on my face.

"It does not!" Ruby exclaimed as she blushed madly.

"How do you know? You don't speak the language." I stated as I paid and grabbed my bag.

Ruby glared at me, trying to look intimidating but fail miserably mostly due to her height and all around appearance.

I smiled at the girl and her glare disappeared and she smiled too. "You don't smile enough Jaune. You have a nice smile."

I shook my head. "Not much to smile about unfortunately."

"Nope."

"What? I asked, Ruby's response throwing me off guard.

"Nope."

"Elaborate please."

"There's plenty to smile about. You just gotta find it is all." Ruby exclaimed with a grin on her face. I couldn't help but smile at her. How was she so happy all the time? Seriously it baffled me but it was also like she had her own gravitational pull. Her smile was pulling me in, I could feel my armor slowly coming off. All because of her.

/~/

I waved goodbye to Ruby as she stepped onto her bus and for the first time in a couple hours frowned as I watched the bus pull away from the stop. I looked up at the night sky, black painted with speaks of white shined down and the moon was full, illuminating everything. My stop was a couple blocks away so I began walking towards it, letting the night air cool me as I went. Wind tussled my hair as I walked, I saw a man in a hood walking on the same side of the street as me. Our distance closed and when we were five feet from passing each other I heard the sound of a gun hammer click into place. Fuck.

I was right and soon a .38 was pulled from the man's front hoodie pocket and aimed at me. Awesome. God knows it isn't my life if something fucked up hasn't happened all day. It was honestly so stereotypical. Gimme your wallet and you won't get hurt blah blah blah. I firmly held onto my bag in my left hand as my right reached behind me. I felt the handle to the expandable security baton I often carried in the back of my waistband and carefully pulled it out. I quickly learned in life that in the moves when the adrenaline kicks in things don't move slower, they move faster.

The baton expanded as I swung and brought it down on the thugs arm, bringing the satisfy sound of his bones cracking to my ears, and he didn't even have time to pull the trigger as the gun clattered to the ground and he was defenseless. I slashed the baton across his face and watched as he stumbled back before I brought into into his left knee, forcing him onto it. I stood in front of the would be assailant and cracked the baton across his head, knocking him out. Well that was interesting.

It was over before it truly began and I closed the baton, resecuring in the back of my waistband I continued on my way. I'd been rolled before and it wasn't going to happen again so I took certain steps, the main one being having Sage teach me how to actually fight which has been tough to say the least seeing as how he often forget how scrawny I am compared to him. I quickly walked to my stop and within twenty minutes was on a bus back to the Mansions.

/~/

I, once again, realized that I live with idiots when I walked back into my apartment and saw Sun, Scarlet and Neptune holding Sage down on the living room carpet as Ren sat on his chest and poured Tabasco sauce into his open mouth and then holding his mouth shut so he couldn't spit it out. What the actual fuck?

Quietly as I could, I snuck into the bathroom and stored the prizes of my shopping trip before sneaking into my room and getting ready for bed, seeing as how playing Xbox was clearly not an option. In my pajamas, I climbed into my bunk and pulled the covers over myself. I shivered as the cool massaged my body, I pulled the covers tighter around me.

Son of a bitch its cold. I closed my eyes tiredly, letting everything that happened today sink in and I felt my bones ache in seconds. Sleep thankfully took me soon enough.

/~/

" _The human body is capable of things you wouldn't believe Jaune." Sun said as they walked through the crowded streets of downtown Vale._

" _Like what?" I asked as the summer sun beat down on us. It had been a month since i'd been taken in by Sun and his crew and just today Sun was showing me an aspect of their lives. Freerunning._

 _Sun looked down a side alley and did a stutter step before running down the alleyway. "Follow me!"_

 _I took after my fellow blonde and watched as he vaulted over a dumpster and reached the street on the other side. I followed him and watched as he slid across the hood of a moving car before beginning to climb up the building on the other side of the street. I watched as he scaled the two story building with easy and stood at the top, with his arms spread wide. "This is only the beginning Arc!"_

 _I watched as his white tank top fluttered in the wind and his tan cargo shorts did the same. His smile was wide. "Want to see the rest Jaune?!"_

 _I felt a smile tug at my lips. "Yes!"_

 _Sun lowered his arms and nodded his head once before motioning me over to him. "Let's get started!"_

 **AN: Short, heavy Lancaster chapter but this is mostly cause next chapter is going to be a plot heavy chapter and probably really long and the Lancaster well...it's just cute and cause why not? So, question. Next chapter is going to involve some of Adam's employees and I was wondering if it was cool if I used some OCs instead of canon characters who make no sense but they wouldn't be major characters by any means. Anyways guys, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you're pumped for the plot heavy update coming soon. Stay cool everyone and live out loud.**

 **P.S. Jaune's bout in South Mistralian (French) translates into "You have beautiful silver eyes."**


	4. 004: The Wolves

**AN: Explanations of OCs and events in the chapter itself at the end.**

"You know you like it but it drives you insane,  
You know you like it but it drives you insane,  
You know you like it but you're scared of the shame,  
What you want, what you gonna do?"

-You Know You Like It, Living In Fiction

Chapter 004

The Wolves

I'll be the first to admit that as we walked to Wilt and Blush, I had no clue what was going on. It was Friday and we'd all just gotten out of school and I was excited for a long nap but that was just a pipe dream now as Sun lead me and the rest of the crew down Verdant to the bull faunus's club, I asked Neptune and he confirmed my suspicions about Adam's horns.

As we entered the club I noticed that there were employees in the club at the time. One boy my age with black and red hair and red eyes who had a black lion tail sprouting from the base of his spine, was laying on the bar sleeping while another boy, who was also my age, with black hair with single red highlight and the strangest eyes I had ever seen that were a mixture of red and gold along with what looked to be black fox ears on his head, was restocking the sleeves of alcohol shelves behind the bar.

"Leo wake up." The guy restocking said as he set a bottle of whiskey down onto the second shelf.

The sleeping one, Leo, groaned as he rolled over and fell off the bar, bouncing off the bar stools, before landing face first on the ground, "Ouch."

What the fuck?

"Dumbass." Sun called out as Leo stood and brushed his red long sleeve V-neck off that was slightly disheveled showing off the edge of a tattoo on the right side of the nape of his neck.

"Asshole." Leo called out as he approached us smiling as he dusted off his ripped black jeans.

Leo and Sun hugged in a brotherly way before separating. Leo scanned the entire group before his eyes settled on me, "You're new."

I nodded. His red eyes were strangely piercing but I somehow managed to hold his gaze as he eventually looked back to the bar where the other employee was still stocking, "Jace, where's Adam?"

Jace, wearing a basic black T-shirt and dark blue ripped jeans, looked over as us and shrugged, "Ask Sax."

"Well where's Sax?" Leo asked in an annoyed tone.

"Fuck if I know." Jace said offhandedly as he began collapsing a cardboard box that was previously full of liquor bottles.

There was a sharp click that rang throughout the club before a massive bass drop played through the speakers and my head flicked over to the elevated DJ station where I could see another guy roughly my age with black and white hair, storm gray eyes and two black wolf ears sprouting from his head.

The trap music quickly cut off and the monochrome haired boy picked up a black fedora with a white band off the DJ station and secured it on his head over his ears. As the boy walked down and began walking toward us I noticed he was wearing a white casual dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons undone and his black skinny tie with a white cross near the bottom loose a notch or two, simple black slacks and simple black dress shoes followed. I noticed the tattoos for the first time, two chains that were double helixing down his right arm and stopped at his wrist and on the back of his right hand was the Eye Of Horus, an old symbol from Mistralian mythology. Clearly a Mistral native like myself.

The guy examine me as he approached and soon held his hand out, "Saxon. You must be Jaune."

I nodded and again the boy's storm gray eyes examined me before looming away to the others and smiling, "Guys. You should come by more often."

"We have school unlike you idiots." Sage said humorously as Leo faked a double take.

"Did he just call us idiots?" Leo asked faking exasperation.

Saxon rolled his eyes and he began walking toward the wrought iron stairs with a rail along the side to what looked like an office built into the wall above and behind the bar, complete with a glass wall looking out at the entire club, "Come on."

The six of us followed Saxon up the steps and stopped on a small, railed platform in front of a door. Saxon knocked on the door before calling out, "You in there Adam?"

"Come in." Adam's voice rang out loudly before Saxon opened the door and we were lead into Adam's office which was quite nice. To the left there was the man himself sitting at a glass top desk with a laptop in front of him and a file cabinet in the back right corner of the wall behind him. Scattered around the wall in front of me and to my left there were multiple couches.

Adam stood from his desk and gave a small smile as he gestured to the couches and me and the crew were soon either sitting or lying on the couches while Saxon leaned against Adam's and Adam himself stood near the center of the office with his back to the glass wall.

Adam turned to me, "I see you've met my important employees," Adam said before he gestured to Saxon, "Saxon here is the assistant manager of the club and primary DJ."

Adam jabbed his thumb over his shoulder to the club below, "Leo runs security and Jace runs the bar."

I nodded understanding everything and Adam continued, "Now gentleman...and Sun-"

"Hey!"

"We are here to discuss, a job." Adam said as he tapped the glass and it instantly became stark white and the lights dimmed. I heard mechanical clicking and realized a small projector had lowered from the ceiling displaying a picture of the Vale Museum onto the white glass.

"That's the Vale Museum." Scarlet stated. Yeah no shit Sherlock.

"No shit." Neptune said as he rolled his eyes at the redhead.

"What's the mark?" Ren asked, his usual calm, stoic personality not faltering.

"Saxon, if you would."

Saxon reached back and tapped a key on the laptop and the picture shifted to a blueprint of the Vale Museum from a top down view. Saxon cleared his throat, "You six will be infiltrating the museum tomorrow night to steal the Drake Codex."

Sir Franklin Drake, explorer, artist, knight, engineer. He was a genuine jack of all trades and was most famous for mapping most of Atlas three hundred years ago when no one else would dare venture into the cold continent. His codex is said to detail his adventures and life from his early twenties to the day before his death, having died in a failed coup defending King Julius. He was a deep part of Mistralian history and one of my heroes. Then again, another one of my heroes is Khan Dao who nearly conquered all of Vaccuo for Atlas two hundred years ago, so no one should look to into my decisions about heroes too much.

"That's only in Vale for like a week right?" Sage asked.

"Tomorrow is the last night of display then it'll be shipped back to Mistral." Adam explained as a picture of the Codex appeared over the blueprint. The Codex was a thick leather bound book with the initials FD embedded into the leather on the front cover. The picture of the Codex disappeared and the blueprint was alone again.

"You'll enter through the roof," Adam said as Saxon clicked the keyboard and an aerial view of the museum appeared and the glass dome at the top seemed to have a quarter of it destroyed and was covered with a tarp.

"What the hell is that?" Neptune asked.

"That, Neptune, is the accident of a painter who was restoring a mural on the museum's second floor but it is also our opportunity," Adam said as the photo changed again to a wide shot of the inside of the museum with the glass dome and floor in frame. I'd I had to guess it was a sixteen foot drop. Not too dangerous, but painful if done incorrectly.

"That will be your entry and exit point." Saxon said simply.

"Wait, exit? I can climb up the inside of a dome and i'm pretty sure Ren can, but the rest of these guys? No way." Sun said in a confused tone.

"We got you something pretty cool to help with that," Adam said as it changed to a new picture of a long hallway with cameras all along the top edge, "Standard hallway. Cut the cams before you walk into it's line of sight. You know the drill."

Hahaha, guess what Adam? I don't know the god damn drill. Teach me the goddamn drill.

"So how many will be going in?" I asked as I stared at the picture of the hallway.

"At least Sun. Neptune will need to stay near the dome so he can deactivate the motion sensors in the dome opening, at the same time disable the silent alarm on the Codex's case and also deactivate the cams on the Codex room itself. You could probably send in three more with Sun at most but i'll you six decide who's going in with Sun and who's sitting with Neptune." Adam said logically as Sum jokingly raised his hand.

"Yes Sun?

"What kind of lock am I dealing with?" Sun asked before Adam shook his head.

"It's all digital. Neptune will have to deal with it." Adam said as Neptune groaned.

"You have a way with words that just immediately makes me want to kill myself." Neptune said.

"Too much for you pool noodle?" Sage asked sarcastically.

"Please, give me some credit," Neptune said as he settled deeper into the couch, "It'll be easy."

"That's what I like to hear," Adam said as he clapped and rubbed his hands together quickly, "This is the big time gentleman. If you pull this off you'll be set to buy...whatever it is seventeen year olds buy."

Adam turned and looked at Saxon, "What do you even buy?"

Saxon shrugged, "First part of my cut is getting me a tailored suit and paying my rent."

" _God_ you are one strange seventeen year old," Adam said as the projector retracted into the ceiling and the lights came back on as the glass became transparent again, "Tomorrow night you'll show up here after eight looking ready to go clubbing. After that you'll dance for a couple minutes, your necessary gear will be up here and you'll leave through my personal entrance. Do the job, come back, dance some more, leave and i'll have your guy's cuts within a week."

"Sounds simple." I commented.

"It's the simple plans that are the best Arc." Adam said ominously.

/~/

"So you and Ruby went out on a date?" Scarlet asked me as we all relaxed in the living room.

"It wasn't a date." I said suppressing a blush.

"Sounds like a date." Sun said as he channel surfed.

"It wasn't a date." I said exasperatedly. It wasn't...was it? I'm pretty sure i'd know if I was on a dare. I'm not that clueless am I? Am I?

"You two got coffee. That sounds like a date." Sage said as he stole the remote and switched it to Netflix.

"We rang into each other at the Starbucks."

"She cleanly reached level four in friendship if she unlocked your tragic backstory," Sun said jokingly, "The only other people to know that is the five of us."

"Okay. First, I just told her that I was abandoned and nothing else-"

"That might not of been a good idea. You know how she is." Neptune chimed in.

"Shut up Shawcross."

"Who the fuck told him my middle name?" Neptune asked as he pointed at me.

"The same person who told me Ren's middle name is Oum." I said smugly.

Ren glared at me before glaring at Scarlet, "It was you wasn't it Scarlet."

"Sorry lads." Scarlet said slightly embarrassed that i'd managed to trick him into telling me everyone's middle names.

"You guys are so stupid." Sage commented as he tapped away on his phone.

"Shut up. We gotta keep our heads in the game." Sun said, gathering the group's attention.

"It's all good. Adams got us covered." I said as I leaned back into the couch.

Neptune uncomfortably rubbed his back while cringing slightly, "It's about to rain."

"How the fuck do you know that?" Sage asked sounding slightly indignant.

"It's cause he's got scoliosis so he's got a metal rod up his spine which has some interesting side effects." Sun explained.

"I can't float in water-"

"Which is why he's scared of the shit." Sun cut it.

"Fuck you, I can feel when its about to rain because of pressure or some shit, and I get cold really easily." Neptune finished.

"He's basically eighty percent robot." Ren said humorously.

"He's a cyborg!" Scarlet exclaimed laughing.

"Bitch i'm Wolverine." Neptune said joining Scarlet by laughing.

We all ended up laughing and Sun was rolling around on the floor while his tail was flung in all different directions.

"Cyborg Neptune is almost as good as Shirtless Neptune!" Sun exclaimed as he laughed and rolled around.

"Wow I haven't seen Shirtless Neptune in forever." I said laughing, Shirtless Neptune being code for Neptune when he was absolutely shit faced.

"And you won't for awhile. I'm not becoming Shirtless Neptune again." Neptune said stifling his laugh.

Sun stood up and walked to the window that lead to the fire escape and smiled as rain began to pepper the fire escape and slide down the windows, "Who knows? After we pull this job Shirtless Neptune might make a comeback."

/~/

Thieves are like wolves. We're ambitious, we're ruthless, and for lack of a better word, we're hungry. Wolves hunt in packs. Thieves work better together. We're wolves. Granted these weren't the best thoughts to be thinking as we all approached Wilt and Blush, ready to get to work. As we approached the only thing I could see was the massive line built up outside the club.

Sun lead the group passed the massive crowd and to the front where Leo, who was wearing a red dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black vest, black slacks and black shoes, was waiting with a massive bear faunus in a normal suit. The man was massive and I honestly wouldn't of been surprised if he had a name like Rocco or Bosco or something like that. Leo spotted us and waved us inside causing the people in the front of the line to complain about how they'd been standing in line for two hours.

Zero fucks given on my part.

The dance floor was packed with bodies of men and women of all different kinds, all moving to the beat of the drum and bass music Saxon was playing from his DJ station with his fedora on. I looked passed all the people to see Jace behind the bar mixing drinks in clothes exactly like Leo's. Jace tossed a bottle behind his back and I watched as the whiskey bottle tumbled in the air before being caught by another bartender. It was a show. A show for tips.

Leo soon disappeared after telling us to socialize a bit before heading up to the office. I looked around the club and for a few moments watched as Saxon switched to trap music and the crowd started dancing faster. Saxon spotted me in the crowd and I could tell he was tipping his fedora to me and not the redhead to my right squealing ablution how the "cute DJ" called her out. Jace and Sage were talking at the bar while Jace handed the taller darker skinned boy a glass of Coke. I made myself comfortable on one of the many couches and soon found a girl sitting on both sides.

"Hey. You look kinda young. Should you be in here?" The girl to my right, Righty if you will, asked.

I remained quiet hoping nay, praying that they'd leave me the fuck alone.

Either God doesn't exist or he's just flipping me off because I remained in my current position. Hell. I was in hell.

"Ooh. He's quiet. Don't worry Nikki, I can change that." The girl to my left, Lefty obviously, said her hand trailed up my thigh.

Okay first, I knooow this chick ain't about to go to the no no zone, okay? Second, I still insisted on calling Nikki, Righty cause fuck her. And third, I was now all matters of uncomfortable.

I immediately stood up and began walking away before I saw Sage and Jace laughing at me from the bar. Joining the assholes, I was soon sipping on Pepsi as I waited it out. Sage soon slapped my chest with back of his hand and nodded up the stairs to Adam's office, "Let's go."

"I'll keep the drinks cold. Go make us some money." Leo said as Sage and I got up from our barstools and headed towards the stairs. We soon entered Adam's office and found Neptune and Ren already there, relaxing on the couches. Within the next fifteen minutes Scarlet and Sun soon joined us in the office, almost immediately, Sun fell onto a couch and stretched out as Adam reached behind his desk and pulled out three full duffel bags. Tossing them on the floor in front of us.

"The two on the right are clothes. The left one is gear." Adam said as he tapped the glass of his window, turning it white to prevent the clubgoers from seeing us change.

Sun and I began digging through the clothing bags and found six identical sets of clothes. A black close fitting hoodie made out of a thick, soft material of some kind, black pants made out of similar material, black canvas sneakers and black Mechanix utility gloves. Pretty simple. As I pulled my blue casual button up shirt and dark jeans off I realized that the clothes provided by Adam were warm. Sliding on the black clothes I moved my arms in multiple direction along with my legs to test mobility and flexibility. It was amazing, not as good as when I was naked but I can't exactly burgle a museum nude...or could I?

The rest of the crew had changed into the identical clothing and Neptune began looking through the gear bag, "Oh. That's what you have planned Adam."

Adam smirked, "You are have no idea how hard it was to get those, don't break em."

"No promises." Neptune said as he zipped up the bag.

"What is it?" I asked, confused by the vagueness of this shit.

"You'll see." Neptune said smirking as Sun slung the bag across his back.

"Ignore the bitchy cyborg." Sage said as he pulled on his gloves.

"Why you hatin?" Neptune asked.

Adam rolled his eyes and slid one of the couches away from the wall to reveal, for lack of a better word, a trapdoor. A simple wooden trap door with an iron ring as a handle.

"Anyone else getting Skyrim flashbacks?" I asked as Adam tugged the trapdoor open.

"I was thinking Dark Souls to be honest." Neptune said.

"Yeah except this job is nowhere near as frustrating." Ren commented and everyone except Adam chuckled.

"You teens and your video game references. What ever happened to Sonic?" Adam asked.

"Better you don't know." Scarlet said as he crouched and looked down the opening.

"Where does this lead?" Sun asked.

"Sewers. Just go straight twenty feet and you'll find a ladder that leads to the surface behind the club. You're on your own from then." Adam explained.

Sun nodded and began climbing down the ladder, shortly followed by Neptune and then me. Part of the way down I was surrounded by metal, like James Bond movies when he'd be crawling around in vents but I soon was past the ground floor of the club and into the sewer. The sewer looked nicer than I had imagined, granted it reeked like no tomorrow but at least the water wasn't full of garbage and the walkways on both sides of the water were clean enough. Ren, Scarlet and Sage soon joined us and Adam shut the trapdoor and we were plunged into darkness. Almost in sync, we all pulled out our phones and began scanning the sewer using the light from our devices.

"He said to text him once we make it back to the ladder." Sage said as we began walking what we assumed was straight.

"We got this guys." Neptune said as I spotted the ladder to the surface.

"We got a job to do." I said as I began climbing up the ladder, towards the surface.

/~/

In was finally in sight. I perched on the wall of a small office building and looked at the museum with Neptune by my side. Neptune had stashed his laptop bag some way along the route to the museum which was a surprise to me seeing as how it would've made more sense to bring it to the club but hey, to each his own. Neptune opened his laptop and his face was immediately illuminated by a cyan blue glow. Tapping away for a moment, Neptune turned to us after closing his laptop, "Motion sensors on the roof are down."

"Nice work cyborg." Sun commented as he looked around for the fastest way to access the roof.

"Asshole."

"You know it," Sun said as his tail twitched sporadically as he pointed, "There it is."

I looked over and say that Sun was pointing to a electric cable hanging off and building next-door and ran to the museum. Scowling at Sun, granted he probably couldn't see me in the dead of night, I sighed, "This sucks."

/~/

"That was bullshit." Neptune complained as we snuck across the roof of the museum.

"It was fine." Sun insisted as we approached the dome of the museum.

"Not all of are fucking monkeys or ex-gymnasts." Sage grumbled as we climbed towards the shattered top of the dome.

Ren sighed at the mention of his past and cleared his throat, "Let's just focus on this."

We were all soon standing on top of the unbroken half of the glass dome and Neptune set down the gear back and unzipped it revealing two black wench looking machines.

"What the fuck are those?" Scarlet asked as Ren began handing out Bluetooth earpieces that he'd gotten from the bag.

"They're used by Vale SWAT to breach windows." Neptune explained as he secured the machines to the dome near the edge of the break of the dome.

"How the hell do you know that?" I asked as Neptune reached into the duffel bag and pulled out four harnesses that reminded me of parachute harnesses.

Sun grabbed a harness and began to slip on it, "Ren, Jaune and Sage. You're coming down with me."

"Nice." I said as Scarlet looked around exasperatedly.

"What about me?" The redhead asked.

"You stay up here, now shut up you second half of a Drake song." Sun said as he smirked.

"You throwing shade mate?" Scarlet asked.

"I most certainly am." Sun said as he threw a harness at me and I began pulling it on.

"That was so savage it must've hurt." Neptune commented as he began typing away on his computer from a seated position on the dome.

"It did a little bit." Sun said as he jokingly rubbed his chest.

Scarlet rolled his eyes and sat next to Neptune as Ren and Sage began slipping into the harnesses. Sun nodded at me as I finished the last buckle, "It fits alright?"

I shifted around uncomfortably, "A bit tight in the crotch."

"Deal with it Jauney."

"Call me that again Sage and i'll punch you in the throat." I threatened as the significantly bigger guy laughed.

"Ooh. Thems fighting words." Sun said he pulled a thick cable with thick clip attached at the end out of the machine and began explaining the controls that were on a small box about a foot higher on the cable. Three buttons basically, up, down, and slack which shut off the wench device inside the machine and let the cable move freely.

"Do what I do." Sun instructed as he hit the slack button and pulled out an excess of seven feet of cable. Sun did a quick two step run before jumping off the unshattered part of the dome, while turning to us, to the space above the back void and, almost in slow motion, fell into the museum. The cable quickly went taut and slowly began to descend and Ren soon copied Sun but with the rest of the gear bag on his back.

"This is some Mission Impossible shit." Sage commented as we watched Sun and Ren send the harnesses back up to us.

I then proceeded to mentally sing the Mission Impossible theme…thanks Sage...fuckin dick.

Copying my monkey faunus friend's movements, I was slowly descending into the museum. I was spinning, giving myself a full three sixty view of the second story room was a massive circle with four hallways leading to certain displays and there was a massive railed opening showing the ground floor from above. I could see Sun and Ren's flashlights occasionally shining on a painting or sculpture. The building was very North Mistralian, pearly white archways of marble and tall stark pillars made of the same marble. Kinda beautiful actually and it made me think about going to some ruins outside Romulus when I was a kid with my parents and sisters.

My sneakers soon connected to the marble floor and I unhooked the cable and let it hang as Sun tossed me a flashlight and a pair of wire cutters. Clicking on the torch I shined it around, examining the works of art on the walls. Sun tapped my shoulder and held a finger to his lips. No sound? No problem.

We moved quietly across the floor, towards the hallway with Drake's Codex at the end and I could tell right away our one problem was a slightly annoying one. Cameras. The cameras were on a closed circuit according to Neptune, whatever that means, but i'm all I knew was it meant he couldn't hack it which left us to using the wire cutters as Adam had planned. As we braced against the walls just outside both sides of the hallway I crouched so Ren could look over me and around the corner if he wanted and I saw doing the same thing for Sage.

Sun pointed at me, then down the hallway. He wanted me to cut the first camera. I took a quick peek out before one of the six cameras could spot me and saw multiple colored wires.

"Which wire?" I mouthed and Sun looked around, panicking slightly, before tugging on Sage's hair under his pulled up hood.

Green wire. Taking another peek, I spotted the green wire in the bunch and prepared to sprint to the first camera on my side of the hallway. I took off as the camera turned away from me and kicked off the wall to be at a similar height to the old security cam. After quickly cutting the wire, I saw the red light on top blink out and heard footsteps quickly approach. Sun ran past me and cut the first camera on his side of the hallway as it began to turn to me. I saw the second cam in my line to begin to turn towards Sun and sprinted towards it, cutting the wire just in time so Sun could cut his second cam. We repeated the process repetitively for the last cam in each of our line and I began to speak before my mouth was covered by Sun's gloved hand.

Sun shook his head and pointed into the Codex room and mouthing, "More cameras."

Ren and Sage jogged past us and into the Codex room, each holding what looked like a roll of yellow smiley face stickers

What the fuck? Sun and I stood in the hallway for what seemed like forever, but in reality it was probably only thirty seconds, before Ren came back into my view and waved us in.

Sun and I strode into the big circular room and spotted eight security cams all at head level on the walls of the room. Much more expensive, no wires to cut. We all stood for a moment before Neptune's voice came through all our earpieces, " Cams are off guys. I'll have the case open in a sec."

I sighed and, for the first time since I got into the room, looked at the glass case in the center of the room the held our prize. It was simple looking but I knew better, that case was designed to stand up to fifty caliber machine gun rounds at least and I knew that me smashing my elbow into it wouldn't work to say the least.

Sun clapped my back and smiled at me, "You did good Arc."

"Thanks Sun."

Sun's tail twitched suddenly and he silenced Ren and Sage before mouthing, "Guards."

We took similar positions as we had before we stormed the hallway except Sage was on the outside, his golden eyes locked with mine and I instantly knew what he wanted do. I heard the maintenance door open and shut and heard heels click down the hallway and saw flashlights shine passed us.

"I'm telling ya man it was just a hard crash with the cameras." A young voice. Probably a new guard.

"Somethings up, I can feel it." An older voice answered as the grew closer. They clearly hadn't turned around to see the cables from our wenches. Hoo-fucking-ray.

Click. Click. Click. Just hurry the fuck up you idiots. I saw the front of one of the guard's flashlights and sprung into action with Sage. Sliding behind the younger guard I brought my left forearm into his throat as I knelt quickly bringing him down and bringing my knee into his back. He struggled and grabbed at my arm, trying to pull it away. He clearly didn't lift as much as me, his legs kicked into the older guard who was in a similar position but with Sage.

Go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep go to sleep. Time for a nap bro. The kicking slowed and grew fainter after a moment and quickly died out along with the older guard who Sage let fall back slowly. I set the guard down softly, knowing we were all safe.

"Case is open guys. Move fast." Neptune said over the earpiece.

Sun jogged towards the case, his eyes shined as he reached into the gear bag and pulled out a small thick plastic bag, the kind that were used in people's attics to keep photo albums dry when the roof leaks and stuff. Sun carefully moved the Codex into the bag, zipping it up before he placed it into the gear bag along with our wire cutters. Slinging the bag back over his shoulder, he and I left the Codex room as Ren and Sage retrieved the stickers. Don't wanna leave any evidence behind.

Sun and I leaned against the railing as Sage and Ren soon appeared stickers in hand before shoving them in their pockets. Not to stroke my own ego, but we're fucking awesome. Right now a crisp high-five would satisfy my ego. My abnormally small ego.

I watched as Ren and Sage were pulled up towards the opening and Sun tapped my shoulder, "Nice take-down on that guard by the way."

"Thanks. It was one of the first things Sage taught me." I responded as the cables descended back down to us.

"It's the first thing he teaches us all bro." Sun said as he attached his cable to his harness and hit the up button.

I followed suit and stared up at the night sky through the hole. I saw the full moon. It shined with a brilliant white light I knew that under moonlight my hair looked silver and I imagined that as I let my arm and legs hang loose as I was pulled up I looked angelic in a way...an angel in black. Now that I think about it that could be the title of a book or a band name. Angels in Black.

/~/

"Open the fucking trap door Adam!" Sun shouted as he banged on the trapdoor from under.

"What's the password?" Jace's voice replied.

"Suck my dick!" Neptune shouted angrily as he shook his fist at the door.

"No way Wolverine." Leo's voice replied next.

Neptune cringed as Sun continued to bang on the door. These guys are so weird

"Get the fuck outta the way." Saxon? The trapdoor swung open and the the fedora wearing wolf faunus's face was framed by light from Adam's office, forcing me to squint as Sun climbed into the club. Time to celebrate.

 **AN: So this was an interesting chapter to write mostly cause things were changing a lot so there might be a couple inconsistencies. So Neptune has scoliosis, mostly because I was listening to the RT podcast and Miles started talking about Kyle Taylor's metal spine and scoliosis and I thought it'd be a nice easter egg. So I don't usually mention this but I listen to podcasts and (weird as it is) read other fanfics while I write so I wanted to thank em for drowning out the sound of my neighbors. I listened to the RT podcast for a while and then She Didn't Text Back done by William Haynes and Daren Vongirdner and you can find that podcast on ITunes and read Warmth of Winter by RareNyte. So about my OCs, no one really addressed them in the reviews so I just kinda just went ahead and did it, it also involved me making Saxon and Jace faunus seeing as how they're normal human but if you liked them you might wanna go check them out in my OC story, Dark Skies and Stormclouds. So...85 followers, thats honestly amazing guys (and girls if you're there) and i'm so happy that you guys found my writing good enough. So guys, please follow and favorite to stay up to date on the story and review telling me what you think about the chapter. Stay cool everyone and live out loud.**


	5. Notes From Wilt and Blush: The Wolf

**AN: Alright guys (and gals) let's talk shop for a sec. I recently had the idea to write a story within a story about everything that happened at the club the year before the main story. This story within the story would be told from Saxon, Jace, Leo, Adam, and Blake's perceptive. This first chapter is entirely from Saxon's and it covers his life before the club. If you don't like this idea then leave you opinion in a review.**

"I was born with the hunger of a lion, the strength of a Sun  
I don't need to sweat it when a competition come  
Original style, like an 808 drum  
So I don't run the track, no, I make the track run  
My momma taught me words, my daddy built rockets  
I hold 'em both together now, tell me what I got  
It's a pretty smart weapon, I can shoot it, I can drop it  
But learn to respect it 'cause you clearly can't stop it"

-Until It Breaks, Linkin Park

Notes From Wilt and Blush: The Wolf

My name is Saxon Lacroix Armonia. I'm different to say the least, most eighteen year olds are looking at colleges or trade schools to move into…but not me. At eighteen years old I have a gun in my hand, ink on my body and a chip on my shoulder and I have one hell of a story to tell and like any good story it has action, romance, and the main characters committing multiple felonies on a daily basis!

/~/

 _I probably looked like a mess. Sunken eyes. Mud and grit in my hair. Dried blood, mud and sweat stained my clothes. It was a cool fall night. Probably sometime around midnight but honestly I couldn't care less...i'd be dead by winter. I hadn't eaten in a week and my ribs were nearly visible. To be honest, I was fucked._

 _My wolf ears twitched as a drop of rain fell onto them and not even a minute later, there was a downpour. I pulled my knees closer to my chest as my shirt and pants soon became soaked and my faunus ears drooped. I was in a mess. I'm a twelve year old for god's sake I shouldn't be going through this. A year ago I was happy, I had a loving mother who worked as a nurse, a dad who I looked up to, and then we moved to Vale from Mistral. Not even a month after living in Vale my parents were sideswiped by a drunk driver and I was moved into an orphanage, which burned down soon after I had managed to escape with some minor burns but as far as the government was concerned, I was dead along with the other kids and caretakers. So when I die, for real this time, I can't wait for the look on the coroner's face when my results come back that the dead twelve year old on his table is-...was Saxon Lacroix Fudo._

 _Fudo, Vaccuoian for steadfast or unmovable, at least I got that trait from my mother. I pulled myself from my thoughts and stared at a puddle of water. I somehow managed to see my reflection and I was right, my eyes were sunken and my normally vibrant storm gray eyes were shadowed and dull as the stormclouds above me. I turned my head skyward and blinked rapidly as a drop of water landed in my eye. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and a thunderous boom shook the ground._

 _I watched as another bolt of blue electricity arced in the clouds, also accompanied by thunder. Rain poured faster and I was soon soaked to my bones along with my black and white hair plastered to my head and face. Great._

 _I set my chin against my knees and sat, waiting for death. Heels clicked down the muddy cobblestone alleyway I was hidden in. I didn't even look up as I saw expensive leather dress shoes pass into my line of sight. They stopped. They turned towards me. I craned my head up out of curiosity and was met with the image of a young man and a girl a little younger than me. The man was maybe in his late teens or early twenties. Red spiked hair was mostly hidden under a black fedora and black rimless sunglasses hid his eyes from me and a black wool overcoat was worn over a simple two piece black suit with a white shirt. The girl had eyes like amber and was dressed in a black dress with a black jacket over her with a bow in her ebony hair. For the first time, I realized the man was holding his umbrella over the two of us, letting the girl stand in the rain, and crouched down in front of me, no doubt getting his overcoat dirty from the muddy alleyway._

" _Why are you here Little Wolf?" The man asked curiously._

 _My teeth chattered from the cold, something about this man was strange, dangerous and alluring in a way, "I'm alone."_

" _Why are you alone?" The man questioned as rain bombarded the umbrella causing that a sound that almost sounded like a heartbeat._

" _Because everyone I love has been taken from me." I replied as I felt tears tug at my eyes._

" _That's unfortunate little one. Tell me, was your mother or father a faunus? Or both?" The man asked._

 _The tears began to come, slowly at first hidden from the man by the rain, "My mother."_

" _What's your name?"_

 _I let my tears flow freely and, somehow not letting my voice crack, said, "Saxon Fudo."_

 _The man set a hand against my shoulder and smiled, "I'm Adam. Adam Taurus."_

 _Adam's hand pulled away and took off his sunglasses, revealing emerald eyes, and stowed them in his coat before taking off his fedora, revealing two horns protruding from his head, and placing it on my head over my wolf ears, "Well Little Wolf, my sister and I have a warm bed and meal for you if you want."_

 _I nervously pulled on the brim of the hat as I saw the little girls amber eyes lock with my gray ones before she smiled at me._

" _Okay." I mumbled out._

 _/~/_

 _I was probably the most deadly sixteen year old in Vale at this point. Shortly after Adam took me in, he showed me his work. He said he'd take care of me like he did Blake and when I was eighteen I could leave like normal eighteen year olds do...but at this point in my life...that's just not me. I got a new identity soon after confirming that i'd stay with the bull faunus and his feline sister. My new name was Saxon Lacroix Armonia, not much of a change but I didn't really want to change it too much. It was the only thing I really had that my parents had given me._

 _As Adam trained me I quickly learned something, I preferred a knife to a gun. Granted, I am aware that sometimes a gun and do things a blade simply can't but the won't stop me from trying. But I still learned the fundamentals of being a mercenary slowly. Guns, knives and explosives if I absolutely had to but last time I tried I nearly blew up Wilt and Blush._

 _My kill count is currently twenty-six. Adam says it's dumb to keep track, it'll just end up messing with my head but no matter how hard I tried...I couldn't stop keeping track. The majority of my kills were acting as Adam's second pair of eyes for Blake seeing as despite her I-don't-give-a-damn attitude she worries about Adam and I know for a fact she felt safer with me at his six._

 _I was relaxing in Adam's office on one of the couches this particular night, I had a blue and yellow Mistral Mariners cap partially on my head and partially over my eyes. Something i'd collected over the past four years is hats, lots of hats. Mostly just duck billed and fedoras but I had a view others that came out on particular situations, usually drunk bets with Blake and the guys. I could hear muffled sounds of Adam down in the bar, pouring and making drinks as the DJ played some trap and bass, getting the people dancing and drinking. The muffled sounds soon became crystal clear as the door to the office opened and Blake Belladonna sauntered in wearing a small black dress that left little to the imagination._

 _Blake gave me a small smile, clearly happy to be away from her temporary job as bartender for a moment, "So this is where you've been."_

 _I took my cap off, letting my wolf ears twitch and breathe, "I literally sit up here all night Blake."_

" _Jace and Leo were asking where you are, some asshole turned tables one and two into a mosh pit and they need some help." My ears perked up at the mention of the black and red haired brothers, they'd recently been hired/taken in by Adam as general workers and looks like tonight the fox and lion were working security for Bruno, the bear faunus who ran security._

 _I got along with the brothers and they were my age, which was definitely a slight change from hanging out with a guy who was eight years older than me and a girl who was a year younger, so we quickly became friends and roommates seeing as how my payment for working as a general worker for Adam only paid so much and having two more people in an apartment who made the same as me made life easier._

 _I groaned, slightly annoyed that my night of doing nothing is about to turn into breaking up a mosh pit. I stood up and set my hat on the couch and pulled off my white hoodie, revealing a plain black V-neck to accompany my stonewashed blue jeans and sneakers. Blake gave me another smile, "Thanks Sax."_

 _I smiled at the cat faunus before sauntering out of the office and standing on the small iron balcony, scanning the packed club below. Lights reflected off my single tattoo of the Eye of Horus on the back of my right hand. It was mostly a callback to my home country, Horus being the god of war and one of the few gods still prayed to, even if it was only by soldiers and police. I spotted the massive fight over by tables one and two with over thirty participants and saw the fox-eared Jace and the lion-tailed Leo trying to break up the fight along with Bruno, who was an easy six and a half feet with a brown buzz cut and wearing a black suit._

 _I quickly descended down to the club floor and pushed through the crowded dance floor towards the tables and as I broke through the line of dancers I spotted one of the moshers about to hit Jace in the back of the head with an empty bottle of Jack Daniels. I started to shout for my friend to turn around but Jace clearly was prepared, spinning around quickly and delivering one of the most solid right crosses across the mosher's face that i'd ever seen. The would be assailant dropped the bottle as he stumbled backwards and landed face first on the floor, it didn't even take me a second to realize that the guy was out cold._

 _I rushed into crowd, punching and shoving the clearly drunk fighters and within a few minutes of fighting the moshers who weren't knocked out cold were running out of the club, some of them with their tails literally between their legs. Crashing down onto one of the leather couches, I sighed tiredly, "That was over before they could say, 'Created by Joss Whedon.'"_

" _That joked sucked." Leo commented as he collapsed next to me along with his brother._

 _Jace tiredly reached onto the table and grabbed a half empty bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label and taking a swig._

" _You are underage." Bruno commented with a thick Atlesian accent._

" _And?" Jace asked as he passed the bottle to me and I took a gulp of the Scotch._

 _Bruno reached over and grabbed the bottle before taking a long gulp of the Scotch and then handing it to Leo who joined us all in drinking the expensive bottle of liquor. It's moments like this that make life nice, sitting with my friends and a large Atlesian man who shouldn't be encouraging underage drinking but is anyway...plus the drunk girls with implants trying to dance in tall heels was pretty funny._

 _/~/_

" _ **MY DICKS BIGGER THAN ADAM'S EGO!"**_

" _ **MY DICKS BIGGER THAN THE PYROTECHNICS BUDGET ON A MICHAEL BAY FILM!**_ "

" _ **I...**_ _I can't trump that…" Leo said as his voice trailed off as the debate between him and Jace in our living room came to an end._

" _Are you idiots done?" I asked seeing as we were thirty minutes late for work and neither of them were fully dressed._

" _FUCK YOU SAXON I'M SO SICK OF YOUR WHITE KNIGHT FAGGOTRY!" Jace yelled, clearly trying not to laugh._

" _Jace Aiden Crimisi!" I shouted._

" _YOU AND YOUR MIRROR POLISHED WHITE KNIGHT COCK!" Leo joined in with his brother, shouting clearly trying not to laugh._

" _Leo Theros Ignis!"_

" _What?!" The brothers shouted in unison._

" _...You're both dicks." I mumbled as I stood up._

" _Tell me something I don't know." Jace said, laughing as he pulled on his shirt._

 _I shoved fox faunus and laughed as he stumbled around with his shirt caught on watch and eventually fell onto our "U" shaped leather couch. Leo laughed as his brother struggled to pull on the red V-neck._

 _I smiled at my friends, it was weird how they just seemed to show up one day and then just never left. In the year and a half i've known them i've never gotten the full version of their past. All i've managed to father is that they were the adopted sons of a rich family and some dangerous people were gunning for this family and their parents had them run. Vague I know._

 _They were both quick studies when it came to learning their way around a gun from Adam like I did once. Jace was by far one of the best sharpshooters i've ever seen and Leo was as good of a close quarter killer as I was. Adam had said the three of us made a good team and I couldn't help but agree. He said we might end up going on a job together soon._

 _I waved to my two roommates as they continued to pull on clothes before leaving our apartment and walking to the parking lot where the love of my life was. Yeah sure my job as DJ of the club got me one night stands almost constantly even though I was seventeen but that didn't seem stop drunk girls from trying to tear off my pants, but my brand new Harley Davidson Shadow Rod Special was easily the most loved thing in my life. It was blacked out, had low-rise handlebars, fastback tail section, fat rear tire, a double-barrel exhaust and, a streamlined front end. For lack of a better way to explain my love for my bike, i'd fuck it if it was humanly possible._

 _Straddling the beast of a machine and sliding on my helmet, I started it and was soon driving towards the Lantern District. I was easily going twenty over the speed limit and splitting traffic like it was no one's business...but seeing how I took out someone's outside mirror with my handlebar, it kinda was their business. I took a turn extremely quickly and smiled as the bike began to fishtail before I got it back under control and cranked the throttle._

 _/~/_

 _Pulling up behind Wilt and Blush I pulled off my helmet and was thankful that I hadn't been challenged to a children's card game and forced to play said card game on my motorcycle during my ride here. What the hell would that even be called? I walked into the staff only entrance, and after walking down a small hallway, I exited into the club on the right side of the bar. I could spot one of the bartenders taking stock of the booze and I saw Blake over at one of the tables doing homework. I approached the feline casually, "What's up kitty cat?"_

 _Blake sighed deeply, "Why must you always call me that?"_

" _It brings me joy." I said as I sat next to her and crossed my legs._

 _Blake rolled her eyes, "I'm not surprised."_

" _Do I look weird when I sit like this?" I asked._

" _Like what?"_

" _Like this," I said as I gestured to my crossed legs, "Do I look weird when I sit like this? I mean, I like sitting with my legs crossed but I can't help but feel like it makes me look feminine."_

" _You look fine Saxon," Blake said as she continued to work on a worksheet, "So how'd your night off go?"_

" _I rode my girlfriend all night long."_

" _WHAT?!"_

" _I'M DATING A MOTORCYCLE!"_

" _I've known you for five years and you still confuse me." Blake commented humorously._

" _I'm in a healthy relationship with a beautiful thing."_

" _It's a machine."_

" _Your face is a machine."_

" _How mature of you Armonia." Blake said as she filled something on a multiple choice question._

" _God knows if i'm not mature no one else in my apartment will." I grumbled as I leaned into the couch._

 _Blake deadpanned at me before grunting slightly. I looked over at my feline friend, "Something wrong Blake?"_

" _Not really i'm just in a little pain." Blake said with a voice filled with underlying tones of anger._

" _What's got you hurting?" I asked before Blake gave me a deadpanned look. What? I just asked a simple question? What could possibly be hurting h-_

 _Oh._

" _Oh." I said realizing that it was that time of the month for Blake. She rolled her eyes at me before looking back to her homework. Yeah, love you too you little ball anger._

 _I held both my hands behind my head as Blake continued to work, after a while I stood and sauntered to my DJ station and opened the main laptop for the whole setup. I went on to a sampler site and bought about ten bucks worth of heavy bassline and some background beats, I spent my next couple minutes trying to put together a new track for tonight's crowd. The new track bumped from the laptop's speakers but something didn't feel right...I looked through an audio folder I labeled "Light Vocals" and scrolled through the folder before finally settling on a vocal that sounded like a few angelic voices singing. I integrated the vocals into the end of the track and played with the vocals themselves so it faded with the end of the song. Yeah that'd sound good._

 _I quickly ran an equipment check on everything and it was perfect as usual seeing as how anyone how fucks with ma things knows they'll get shot or worse. The staff door banged shut as Leo and Jace walked into the club, finally able to get their old shitty Toyota started, even though I constantly told them to scrap the piece of junk. It's not like Adam didn't pay them well, they both had been recently promoted like me and that meant a bigger paycheck. So it made no sense to me that they, A, had such a piece of junk, and B, shared a car in the first place seeing as how the both of them could probably afford a car for themselves._

 _Jace approached the DJ station and walked up the steps before standing next to me and looking at the soundboard and three laptops I had open, all displaying different things from status of equipment to my song lineup for tonight, "This is so fucking confusing."_

" _Half these buttons don't even do anything." I said jokingly as I opened YouTube on one of the laptops and started playing 17 feat. Packy by Cyrus._

" _I love this song." Jace said offhandedly as Leo approached us._

" _Wassup guys?" Leo asked as he stood with us on the elevated platform._

" _Looking at Saxon's weird ass board." Jace said as he pressed a button on the soundboard causing the strobe lights throughout the club to turn on._

 _I glared at the fox faunus before turning off the strobe lights and Leo rolled his eyes, "Not as weird as when I tried laced pot on accident."_

 _/~/_

" _ **WHERE THE HELL ARE MY CHEETOS!?**_ "

" _Oh god it's happening again."_

" _Where are they Jace?!"_

" _I don't know Leo!"_

" _Okay, your choice."_

" _No not the good china-" Crashing sounds were heard through the apartment building._

" _Gimme my Cheetos Jace. If I don't have them i'm going to die!"_

" _For the last time I don't have your Cheetos."_

" _Liar!" The sounds of Leo punching Jace were heard throughout our apartment._

" _Ow my face!"_

 _Leo punched Jace again._

" _Ow my hair!"_

" _Gimme my Cheetos you son of a-"_

" _ **THAT'S IT!**_ " _The sound of Leo's body crumpling and falling to the floor with a thump occurred after Jace punched him straight in the jaw._

 _Jace breathed heavily for a moment, "Fucking stoner."_

 _/~/_

" _That could have been a lot worse." I said simply._

 _Leo leaned against my station and nodded, "Apparently Sun came by earlier with the latest batch of phones. Those five brought in a lot this month."_

" _They should visit more often." I commented as I adjusted my song lineup._

" _Yeah, I kinda like those jackasses." Jace said with a smile._

" _You're just saying that cause last time we all partied together Neptune jumped onto the table, tore his shirt off and shouted, 'I'm Wolverine!'" I said with a smile on my face, remembering the night well._

" _You just remember that cause you got into a three way that night." Leo said, smirking at my own accomplished._

 _I_ _blushed lightly at the thought of that night, it was a dead tie for the greatest night of my life. But the reason I was embarrassed about it was because, unbeknownst to me, Leo and Jace went home before me and ended up recording the audio of my night in nirvana. Six hours worth. That they occasionally held over my head as blackmail. Yeah they're assholes but they're my assholes._

 _Jace smiled at my light red cheeks, "Nice to see you haven't forgotten what we have."_

" _Drink bleach."_

" _Nah, last time I did that it just gave me this weird red highlight." Jace said as he pulled on the red lock of hair, even though it was totally natural._

 _I love Jace and Leo, they were my homies. Hell if I loved them any more i'd probably be gay. But they were the biggest jackasses on Remnant half the time and that's me biting my tongue till it bleeds. I continued tweaking the song list till I was sure I had a good balance. Closing my laptops, I walked to the bar and hoisted myself onto one of the stools as I adjusted my fedora._

 _Jace vaulted the bar and was soon behind it, mixing drinks, and Leo sat on the barstool one over from me before reaching behind the bar and pulling out a notebook and pencil. Leo was an artist and I watched as he began sketching busts of me and Jace. Jace set a drink in front of me, "Try it out. Vincent came up with it last night."_

 _I cocked my eyebrow at Jace at his mention of one of the other bartenders. I reached for the drink and took a sip._

 _And then immediately spit it out onto the floor behind me, "What the fuck was that supposed to be!? Bacardi and Windex!?"_

 _Jace looked at me strangely before taking a sip of the drink, "It tastes okay to me."_

 _Jace moved the drink to Leo and without looking up from his sketch, Leo took a sip of the drink. I could tell he was letting himself fully taste the drink, after thirty seconds, Leo calmly stood up and sauntered across the club to a trashcan, grabbed the edges of the trash can and began puking the most violently i'd ever seen._

" _Guess it has a required taste." Jace said simply as he took another drink._

" _Vincent should stay away from the bar for a while." I said, looking at Leo's abandoned notebook and pencil._

" _Why? He's a good bartender." Jace said as he poured out the drink and washed the glass._

" _Because Leo is over there puking like he just spent the past decade inside Matt Stone and Trey Parker's heads." I said exasperatedly as Leo continued to vomit._

" _Leo is nowhere near as fucked up as he would be if that was true." Jace said with a hand in his hip._

 _I sighed tiredly, "Just- get ready okay? Club opens at five tonight so you have two hours till then."_

 _Jace nodded and I soon found myself on one of Adam's couches and stared into space. A wave of fatigue took me order out of nowhere and I soon found it impossible to keep my eyes open. A nap wouldn't hurt right? They'll wake me up in time. My eyes closed soon and sleep took me._

 **AN: So what did you think? Another thing I wanted to do with this story within a story is practice writing two specific types of scenes, assassinations and maybe smut. Yes I did just say smut, but if you're against a little citrus in this story please tell me. So I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and next chapter we'll return to your regularly scheduled thievery. Stay cool everyone and live put loud.**


	6. 005: The House Party

"Welcome to my duck off the crib, the spot, the pad  
But my house is your house if you throwin' it back  
Excuse me if my home bringing the sad,  
Soon as these happy faces land you can run with the cash  
Home run, slam dunk, touchdown, pass  
Mi casa es tu casa so it ain't no holding back  
Another shot of vodka, you know what's in my glass  
It's my house, just relax  
Welcome to my house  
Baby, take control now  
We can't even slow down  
We don't have to go out"

-My House, Flo Rida

Chapter 005

The House Party

Oobleck paced back and forth in front of the class with a folded up newspaper in his hand. Oobleck was honestly talking so fast that I couldn't understand and I knew everyone in the class was as confused as me as our green haired history rambled at mach three.

"Um, sir?" Weiss asked hesitantly.

"Yesmissschnee?" Oobleck asked not slowing his pace.

"Is something wrong sir?" Pyrrha asked, sounding genuinely concerned that our history teacher had finally snapped.

Oobleck stopped dead in front of his desk before turning on the overhead projector and pulling down the white screen where I could see Oobleck's issue of the Vale Times and the front page headline forced me to suppress a smile.

 **CODEX STOLEN BY DARING THIEVES, POLICE HAVE NO LEADS.**

Hahaha. So that's what's got him so worked up? Apparently we're "daring", i'm honored. Oobleck pointed to the screen, "These thieves' disregard of a proud kingdom's history is absolutely blasphemy."

You say blasphemy, I say it made me ten thousand lien in one night so I honestly don't care if I defiled God or anything sacred. Oobleck continued to rant on about how the thieves in question were scum of the earth and how the law will soon have them in custody. Well fuck you too Doctor.

Me and Ren occasionally shared glances as the Doctor rant grew longer and longer, constantly slandering us. Hell, i'm surprised he didn't accuse us of kicking puppies and eating babies… Which we don't! Usually!

Ren quietly handed me a note under our desks and I opened it one handed and peaked down.

He hasn't ranted like this since you challenged him on what happened in the Mistralian Inquisition. I read Ren's note twice before it came back to me. Earlier in the year I challenged Oobleck's knowledge of Mistralian history and was right which sent him off the deep end for a while to say the least and sent me to the top of his shit list for a while.

Not too long after Ren's note, the bell rang and everyone began picking up their bags seeing as how we hadn't even gotten out out textbooks during the period. I waved to Ren as I left the history room and walked towards the science wing of Signal High. Chem was the next thing on my chopping block and I knew it would at least be entertaining seeing as how I had Glas.

I entered the chemistry room and saw my teacher, River Glas, at his desk organizing some files in the filing cabinet next to his desk. The man was in his mid-twenties with a ruffled, short cyan undercut and a cyan left eye seeing as his right eye was covered by a white eye patch. The man wore a cyan colored button up shirt with a white tie and white jeans. I took my seat at my lab table and was soon joined by Neptune, seeing as how he was my lab partner for this period. That was probably the one of the best parts of going to school with my roommates, besides Calculus, I had at least one of them in my class so I always had a partner.

Neptune climbed onto the stool and let his backpack fall onto the ground with a thud and his head wavered from lack of sleep. I slapped him on the back a couple times and he shook his head, causing his hair yo sway in all directions.

"You okay man?" I asked, concerned for my friend.

"Yeah. Just tired, I didn't get much sleep last night." Neptune said as the stools at lab table behind us screeched as Ruby and Yang sat down.

"Hey Jaune." Yang greeted cheerfully.

"Hey Neptune." Yang greeted more flirtatiously.

We exchanged light small talk until the bell rung and we all faced the head lab table where Glas was standing. The strange accented young teacher proceeded to begin explain the Noble Gases and how they reacted with the Alkaline Metals exceptionally. And then he almost blew up the western half of the school. God I love the public school system.

/~/

"And apparently our robbery was an exceptional act of skulduggery." I exclaimed as we all sat on the roof. It was the safest place in the school seeing as how there was no roof access and the only way up was a twenty foot shimmy between two pillars.

"You guys should've heard how he was trashing us." Ren said as he bit into his sandwich.

"He used the word skulduggery. What does that even mean?" Scarlet asked from his spot on a crate we'd managed to drag up here.

"It means a trick." Neptune said from his seated position on a massive pipe that I imagine was for the building's AC.

"How do you possibly know that?" Sun asked exasperatedly.

"Word of the day calendar." Neptune answered simply as he bit into his tuna sandwich.

"Nerd!"

"Oh fuck you. Sage back me up here." Neptune said as he set down his sandwich.

"Word of the day calendar," Sage said in a wise sounding voice, "I'm gonna have to go with...nerd!"

We all laughed and I picked my Monster up from the graveled roof on my chair and took a sip before a fit of laughter caused energy drink shot out from my nose and I started coughing.

"You're all assholes!" I shouted as I coughed up more Monster and my friends continued to laugh as the green energy dripped from my mouth and nose.

"We should go to the guy's apartment tonight," Sage suggested, "Our celebration two days ago kinda got cut short."

"Yeah. Anyone know where they live?" Scarlet asked the group.

"Yeah, they live in North Wind." Sun said. North Wind being a burrow similar to The Mansions except a bit more spread out and a lot closer to the Lantern District.

"North Wind. That's a good run from our apartment. Who wants to make it a race...well, a race for second place." Ren said confidently.

"Aren't you confident." Neptune observed with a smirk.

"So it's a race?" Sun asked the group.

"I'm down." I said simply, my nose still stinging from the energy drink.

"I'll race you scrubs." Sage said confidently.

"Bitch you live with us and i'm in." Neptune answered with a smirk.

"Sounds top, i'm game." Scarlet said before Sun grinned happily.

"Sounds awesome. This calls for a friendship headlock." Sun said as he wrapped his muscular arm around Scarlet's neck.

"Sun," Scarlet choked out, "Please stop!"

"Friendship pile driver!"

/~/

It's certain situations that help me really understand that I am sometimes the most passive aggressive dick on Remnant and have sarcasm so dry it'll parch people. Granted these situations happen so often it's hard to tell the difference from how I am normally. My "brothers" are the only ones who see the real me, I want to change that eventually but that day is neither here nor there. So as I tied on my Converse in the living room I couldn't help but feel happy, I was with my best friends...my family.

Sage was adjusting his jeans and testing mobility by moving his legs, "Maybe a race isn't the best idea in these clothes."

"What? Scared you're gonna lose Ayana?" Sun asked confidently.

"It's just a house party Sage, wear something more comfortable." I said as I rose in my black joggers and orange V-neck.

Sage nodded before walking back to his and Scarlet's room as Neptune sat on the breakfast bar wearing black joggers similar to mine and a close fitting cyan tank top, looking like a fucking model as usual.

Sun sat on the back of the couch in a short sleeve white button up shirt that was open, revealing his abs and muscled chest, and cream colored cargo shorts. Not exactly the most conventional clothes for late November. Scarlet paced back and forth in the kitchen, eager to get shit faced, wearing a red shirt and white sweatpants. Ren sat on one of the bar stools wearing a green long sleeve shirt and black sweatpants as Sage emerged from his room in a green tank top and black basketball shorts.

"Everyone ready?" Sun asked as we all stood.

Everyone nodded or answered affirmatively and we all began walking down to street level. A street light flickered as Sun handed out the address to Leo, Jace and Saxon's apartment. I typed the address into my phone and directions popped up almost instantly, it was gonna be a long run. Sun set a countdown clock on his phone and we all turned in different directions, knowing we probably wouldn't see anyone else till near the end. I could hear the click of the clock as it approached ten seconds and adrenaline pumped through my veins.

 _Click._ Ten.

 _Click._ Nine.

 _Click._ Eight.

 _Click._ Seven.

 _Click._ Six.

 _Click._ Five _._

 _Click._ Four _._

 _Click._ Three _._

 _Click._ Two.

 _Click._ One.

 _Click._ Go.

I took off as Sun's phone rang; I heard everyone else's sneakers scratch the pavement as they all ejected from the sidewalks, all of us scrambling in different directions. North Wind was strangely enough on the west side of the city so I would have to cut through Midtown and the Lantern District to get to it quickly.

Channeling my inner Ezio, I had soon climbed up one of the apartment buildings in and started running towards Midtown, which is just a richer version of Downtown if you ask me. I stopped part way to North Wind and looked at the Downtown skyline and sighed. I had a long run ahead of me.

/~/

My lungs were trying to kill me. I was five minutes from North Wind, hopping over benches and parked cars with difficulty seeing as how i'm pretty sure you could see the veins of my legs at this point. My orange V-neck fluttered in the wind as I turned a corner and spotted Sun, running with all his strength.

Sun? That must mean i'm in third. It was at this point I chose to quote Owen Chase, "As I live and breathe, he's mine!"

"Stop quoting Starbuck pleb!" Sun shouted as I got my second wind and began gaining on him.

"Owen Chase bitch! Get your source material right!" I shouted as I ran beside Sun, pumping my arms quickly.

"Who the fuck is Owen Chase!?" Sun shouted as he matched my pace.

"The guy Starbuck is based off! Haven't you seen In The Heart Of The Sea!?" I shouted as I slid over the hood of a parked car and Sun jumped over the roof in a single jump.

"I was too busy fuckin' yo bitch!"

"You realize i'm single right?!"

Sun laughed as we continued matching each other toe to toe, pound for pound. That analogy isn't really correct seeing as we weren't fighting. But I could go pound for pound with Sun and anyone who says differently is a liar. Real talk.

Me and Sun were soon running down the hallway of the apartment building, shoulder to shoulder. I growled as the monkey faunus began to gain and he growled as I began gaining on him. It was a back and forth as we neared the apartment, which was 930 meaning it was on the ninth floor of the building. We skidded to a stop as we fought for control of the door handle and in a brilliant moment of genius; I grabbed his tail and yanked him backwards, letting me open the door and stumble into the apartment shouting triumphantly, "Silver medal!"

I quickly took in the living room and small connected kitchen; it was basically the same layout of our apartment, there was a black wooden baseball bat hanging on the wall by the notch at the end of the handle with the help of two nails, a flat screen similar to ours with a gaming setup like ours, a basic looking kitchen, and a black leather couch with Leo with a black and brown corgi in his lap, Ren, and Neptune sitting on it.

"Yeah no." Neptune said with a smirk.

"What the fuck?!" Me and Sun shouted in unison.

"How the fuck did you get here?! You don't even climb!" Sun shouted as we walked in and shut the door behind us.

"I took a cab." Neptune said nonchalantly.

"You're a fuckface." I growled angrily.

/~/

As the rest of my roommates showed up periodically and Saxon can back from a booze run, wearing a white tank top that had big bold black letters saying **LESS TALKY MORE LIFTY**. Saxon had brought back a duffle bag full of booze and as alcohol was added over the first four hours of the night I learned a few new things about the faunus crew.

They were all huge fucking geeks...like us. This was brought up multiple times, one being Leo's Agent's of Shield lanyard for his keys, another being a drinking game where Jace set a Santa hat on the edge of the TV and anytime a character on Gotham would "wear" the hat we all took shots. Which made Neptune complain about how it wasn't even December yet...even though it was the thirtieth.

They all had a lot of tattoos... **A LOT** of tattoos; even more than i'd seen before. Saxon's twin chains helixing down his right arm and Eye of Horus were the only ones I really noticed. The rest of his tattoos consisted of three birth to death dates on his left forearm and a tattoo that was partially destroyed by a knife scar so all I could see was _N ir._ Jace had a hyper realistic tattoo of red caution tape wrapped and covering his entire right bicep and, an small cross on his right hand. Leo had embers and flames covering the right side of his chest, his entire right shoulder, his right shoulder blade, and a good part of his right bicep. Which I thought was pretty cool to be honest.

Jace and Leo were brothers despite the different last names and the different faunus traits but wouldn't explain the situation to me no matter how much alcohol I added to them.

And finally...they were all trained killers, I mean what the fuck? I thought having one trained killer in my life was enough but nah, why have one when you can have four assassins. Yeah, warn me not to beat Leo too many times in Rocket League so he doesn't gut my ass. I enjoy living believe it or not.

Partway through a bottle of Jack Neptune giggled like a little girl, probably on his tenth drink or so, and smiled, "Jaune."

"What?" I asked, not really feeling the effects of the alcohol i've drank.

"You should ask out Ruby." Neptune said, completely seriously and it was at that point I realized he'd hit level three of Drunk Neptune known as Matchmaker.

Saxon laughed loudly as his corgi, Ghost, curled up in his lap, "Jaune, you holding out on us?"

I blushed slightly as I took another drunk from my glass, "It's nothin'."

Saxon got real serious all of a sudden and I noticed that Leo and Jace got real quiet. Saxon scooted over to me, letting Ghost wander over to Sage and lick his hand, "Jaune...love is a precious thing."

"Dude you're only a year older than me."

"But I have a lot more experience than you…" Saxon said ominously before throwing his arm around my shoulders in a brotherly way, "Listen to me...you don't need a gun, you don't need a pill, if you ever wanna die...fall in love and you'll get killed."

I looked at the older boy to my right and watched as his calm, collected personality began to crumble slowly, he blink rapidly before speaking again, "But it's worth it. Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all and all that."

The calm DJ I met broke and I watched as his wolf ears drooped sadly and as Ghost abandoned Sage and hopped up onto the couch with his little stumps before walking onto Saxon's lap and licking his cheek where had began rolling down his face slowly. Saxon rubbed his eyes, snuffing out his tears and smiled at me again, "This is why I don't drink too much Arc."

Saxon rose shortly after, walked into the bathroom, and I looked at Jace with a look of absolute seriousness, "What the hell was that?"

Jace sighed sadly, "Four months back Saxon's girlfriend died. Noir meant everything to him and man you shoulda seen em together...you think they were like two puzzle pieces, how perfectly they fit together."

Noir...Saxon's tattoo. Oh Saxon...

"Oh…" I said sadly, letting my voice trail off before Neptune grabbed the back of my neck and shook me slightly.

"Come on man let's cut this sad shit. This is a party after all." Neptune said with a smile on his face and I faked one to him and downed a Jägerbomb.

Saxon soon joined us, no longer in his previous mood and began matching us all shot for shot and partway through the pack of Red Bulls and the Jägermeister he and Sage began roasting each other.

"Mother fucker I bet if we shaved off your _green_ hair, you'd look like a black ninja turtle from the new Michael Bay movie." Saxon said with a slur in his voice as we all began laughing and I laughed so hard I legitimately thought I broke something by laughing.

Sage was awestruck and, maybe it was from his drunkenness, couldn't come up with a come back as Saxon stood across from him on his side of the coffee table, "You done with this dick measuring contest?"

Sage, not being able to come up with a sensible plan of action, did what any man would do. Flung down his basketball shorts and boxers and let his member hang out freely as he shouted, " **I'LL SHOW YOU A DICK MEASURING CONTEST MOTHER FUCKER!** "

"Just looking at it makes me want to do push ups." Jace muttered in awe.

Neptune looked at Sage with an air of absolute seriousness, which is something the rest of us didn't have at that point. Neptune cleared his throat, "Sage."

"Sup?"

"I have so many questions about this current situation but right now i'm only gonna ask one and if you answer it i'll shine your boots for a month." Neptune said calmly.

"Go ahead. Ask away."

"Why are you hard?"

…

…

…

"Fuck it. You win." Sage said quickly.

"Always do." Neptune responded immediately.

/~/

It was around midnight and it had officially become Tuesday and I didn't give a shit because I was watching as Jace and Ren had a dance battle in the center of the living room, after Leo and Sage had moved the coffee table into one of the guy's room.

I watched as Scarlet sat on the back of the couch, against the wall, and chugged a drink Jace had made for him called a Adios Mother Fucker. When I asked Jace about it he simply said Scarlet would be out like a light in a bit and by the way he was swaying I wouldn't be surprised. As the dance battle concluded Ren switched it to Flo Rida and soon we were all in the kitchen taking shots to Whistle. I felt my legs wobble slightly as I walked towards the bathroom...and then I blacked out.

/~/

My eyes opened slowly and all I could feel was a sharp pain in my left side, under my arm. I spasmed in pain and rolled off the couch in the guy's apartment that I was sleeping on. I groaned as the pain grew and quickly managed to stumble to my feet. I reached under my left side and hissed as I made contact with my shirt. I trudged to the bathroom as a massive headache began appearing and as soon as I reached the coveted room, I puked my guts into the toilet...a couple of times. I groaned and began pulling off my shirt to investigate my pain and saw something horrifying in the mirror.

" **WHAT THE FUCK?!** " I shouted, which instantly intensified my headache.

" **SHUT** -ahhh… What is it Jaune?" Saxon asked, probably suffering from a headache of his own.

"I have a tattoo!" I shouted with a shaky voice and groaned as my headache pounded.

Saxon had soon wandered out of his room and stood in front of the bathroom and began examining my plastic wrapped skin. My tattoo was writing but I couldn't exactly see it due to it being covered in pus and blood.

"Why do I have plastic wrap over it?" I asked nervously.

"It's like a bandage, it keeps fluids from leaking out until it begins healing." Saxon said as he slowly peeled it and the medical tape holding it off.

"So shouldn't it stay on?"

"If you want an infection. Aftercare is important," Saxon said as I gently balled up the plastic wrap and tossed it into the garbage, "It's gonna hurt for a bit so you might wanna take a quick shower, but don't let the water hit it, just above it."

Saxon left and I stripped down and started my shower. Following Saxon's instructions, I let the water run over my ink and watched as the blood and pus pooled near the drain. I swear if one of these mother fuckers doesn't have a Tylenol ready for me when I get out i'm gonna choke a bitch. I groaned for so many reasons as I got out of the shower and began drying off and getting dressed. I examined my left side in the mirror and could see "The Devil Was An Angel Too" tattooed from just under my armpit to two inches above my waistline.

As I walked out everyone else seemed to be awake in varying degrees of pain and agony from Neptune puking in the sink to Jace who was sipping coffee like it was any other morning.

Ren handed me a bottle of Tylenol and swallowed three pills without skipping a beat as Saxon stood at the oven, making a huge pan of scrambled eggs and what smelled like bacon in the oven.

"My dad always said a greasy breakfast and Tylenol are the best cure for a hangover." Neptune said jokingly from his spot by the sink.

"He got a cure for this?" I asked as I lifted my left arm and shirt, revealing the new tattoo.

"I don't think so. You don't remember going to the tattoo parlor do you?" Neptune asked.

"Nada."

"What was the last thing you all remember?" Scarlet asked, holding his head in his hands with his elbows braced against the breakfast bar.

"Going to the bathroom around midnight." I muttered as I sat on the counter.

"Dance battle with Jace." Ren said simply as he rubbed his temples.

"Eating out the blonde tattoo artist in the bathroom." Jace muttered into his coffee.

"Shooting that so called thug in the shoulder and stepping on his nuts." Saxon said as he continued to scramble eggs.

"Handless shots." Sage said quietly, very un-Sage of him.

"Trying to kidnap the mannequin from Old Navy." Sun responded, stifling a laugh.

"Stealing some guys snapback and then motorboating his girlfriend." Neptune said as he repressed his heaving.

"Last thing I remember is walking to the Lantern District." Leo said as his tail wagged slightly as Saxon took the pan of bacon out of the oven.

"I remember all of it." Scarlet said, adding his own answer to his question.

A moment of silence passed between all of us before I spoke, "We were so drunk...we will never speak of this night to anyone else."

"Agreed." The eight said in unison.

"So what did we learn from last night?" Ren asked in a Renly way, insisting the everything was a learning experience.

"Bitches be cray." Jace said offhandedly.

"Jace, you keep talking like that and i'm deleting Urban Dictionary off your phone." Leo said to his brother.

"Aight homie."

…

"Give me your fucking phone."

 **AN: Who doesn't love a house party right? I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and next chapter with have...things...I don't know but it'll be awesome. I have a killer headache as i'm typing the author's note and I just saw Batman v Superman and I basically took back a years worth of shit talking because Ben Affleck was an amazing Batman in my opinion. Just thought i'd toss that out there for all you guys on the fence about seeing it. Well guys as always review telling me what you thought and asking your questions, follow and favorite to stay up to date on the story and stay cool everyone and live out loud.**


	7. 006: The One Who Realized The Truth

"And the bitch of it all is that I'm running from  
The desire of the people to whom I belong  
At the end of the day you can tell me I'm wrong  
'Cause you went to all of this trouble

Heart's on fire tonight  
Feel my bones ignite  
Feels like war, war  
Feels like war, war"

-A Love Like War, All Time Low

Chapter 006

The One Who Realized The Truth

Two weeks had passed since the house party and it only felt like my headache was just fading. I drank way too much. Like way too much, I got a tattoo for fucks sake and I don't even remember it.

I was chilling in the living room with Sun and Scarlet while Neptune tried cooking in the kitchen with Sage's help. I stared at the ceiling and I heard Sun snicker slightly before opening YouTube and playing Give Your Heart A Break over his phones speaker.

"You're an asshole." I mumbled before groaning.

"An asshole who's right," Sun said, "Ask bae out."

"There is no bae. Zero baes." I deadpanned to Sun.

"There's Rubae Rose." Neptune joked as he made stir fry with Sage.

"I hate you all."

"They're just pulling your chain Jaune," Scarlet said, "But seriously ask out Ruby. The tension is so fucking thick you need a chainsaw to cut through it."

"It is not." I said offhandedly. What the hell is this? Are they ganging up on me? Again?!

"Oh really? Okay, Monday after the party at school." Sun began.

"What happened to prove your point?" I asked as I rose from the couch and Sun stood along with me.

"When I transferred into your Calculus period and we partnered up for the presentation, Ruby was crushed." Sun explained.

"She was not." I defended. Granted she looked a little sad but not crushed. I mean, I wouldn't do that to her.

"When you and her partnered up for weightlifting, you should've seen the way she looked at when you were benching." Sage said, joining in on the let's-shit-on-Jaune-parade.

"She was making sure I didn't drop the bar on my throat." I reasoned logically as I crossed my arms.

"She was making sure no one was gonna steal you before she had her chance." Neptune muttered.

This is such bullshit, why does this always happen to me?! Seriously why am I the only with a female friend?! Come on Neptune, you're swimming in the kitty, how could you not have at least a few female friends...you dick.

"Ruby is not interested in me." I said dismissively.

"She introduced you to her friends. She wants them to like you." Ren reasoned as he walked into the living room from the bathroom.

"Not you too Ren." I sighed angrily.

"I have to side with literally everyone else in the room. Ruby's into you." Ren said as he leaned against the side of the couch.

"I'm in the freaking Twilight Zone," I said as I ran both hands through my hair, "I gotta get out of here."

* * *

It didn't occur to me until I was halfwayhalfway down the stairs that all the rest of my friends besides Ruby were all in one place. Time to head to Wilt and Blush. I decided to splurge on a taxi and was soon standing in the line of Wilt and Blush in Lantern District. Music bumped and flowed out of the club, I could feel the beat moving my body as I was standing there, not completely sure about what to do in the club.

I eventually had had enough of waiting and stepped out of the long line and quickly walked to the front where the same bear faunus from the night of the museum heist was standing. I stood in front on his for a second before speaking, "You remember me from two weeks ago right?"

He nodded.

"Cool if I go in?"

Nod.

I nodded at the silent man and walked into the club where the dance floor was packed with moving bodies of all shapes and sizes. It looked like a normal night for the boys of Wilt and Blush, I could see Saxon at his DJ station, Jace behind the bar, Leo beating the shit out of a guy in to corner for (what i'm assuming) getting too handsy with the waitress.

I took in the sounds and colors for a moment before feeling a tap on my shoulder, spinning around I was soon met with the sight of Blake Belladonna in a black cocktail dress.

"What are you doing here?" Blake asked loudly over the music.

"Just stopping by, I kinda wanted to talk to Saxon." Jaune shouted over the music.

"Hold off for a bit okay? He's killing it tonight." Blake said before strutting away.

I stood in the back of the club for a while, just watching the club work and run. Saxon in front of the crowd, getting them moving. Jace pouring drink, keeping them moving and the cash flowing. Leo keeping the drunks out. It was a good system. After a while I got impatient and began pushing my way to the DJ station and soon stood next to Saxon while he mixed live, compared to a pre-made track.

"Yo Jaune." Saxon greeted, not looking up as I sat in the chair behind him. I realized that I seemed a lot quieter back here with the man who was making the music himself.

"Saxon...what was Noir like?" I asked curiously, on a whim, and Saxon stood up straight, letting the bass play on repeat. The clubbers seemed to be fine with that as Saxon turned to face me.

"Get over here." Saxon said before pulling me out of my chair and next to him at the station.

"DJing one-o-one. Beats per minute," Saxon said before as he pointed to a little dial that read 128 in green LED lights,"Ninety percent of the music DJs mix is house music which can range from one twenty to one thirty beats per minute, dubstep is usually one forty that's cut to seventy, house is as I said, 'from one twenty to one thirty beats per minute' and hardcore is one ninety...who the fuck can you dance to that?"

"DJing two-o-one. Bass," Saxon said before circling his finger around half of the center of the board where a bunch of knobs and switches were, "You see Jaune, music can naturally control your body and this part of the board, controls the best part in my opinion."

Saxon pointed into the front of the crowd where I could see multiple college girls moving their hips and asses with the bass and I felt my hormones kick in a little while watching the sight. Saxon's hand landed on the back of my neck and lowered me closer to the board slightly, " Eyes on the prize Jauney. For my final lesson, tonight we will cover DJing three-o-one. Beats per minute continued. Notice that i'm playing at one twenty-eight? It's commonly believed by most DJs that one twenty-eight is the magic number, it's when your entire body becomes in sync with the music. But I personally like to start at one twenty and work my way up to one twenty-eight over the night."

I nodded, "That's great Sax. But it doesn't answer my question."

"Why do you care what Noir was like Jaune?" Saxon asked, his joking persona dissipating.

"Saxon...I have a few questions about...girls." I admitted. I mean, Ruby doesn't like me but making sure won't hurt right? Right?

Saxon swapped the music over to what I knew was KDrew's Circles before leading me across the club and up into Adam's office that was currently Adamless, and thankfully, very well soundproofed.

Saxon leaned against Adam's desk and I sat on one of the many couches as Saxon looked like he was in the middle of an internal debate. Slowly coming out of his own head, Saxon spoke, "So who's this girl that you're into."

"Her name is Ruby but I want to know if she's into me." I admitted before Saxon groaned.

"Dude what's the point of asking if you don't like her back." Saxon reasoned.

"I just want to know okay? The guys constantly give me shit about our relationship and I want to figure out what is actually up." I admitted as I stood up in frustration. I mean what the hell dude, come on.

"Okay okay. Does she glance at you time from time when she thinks you're not looking?" Saxon asked as he leaned back against the desk.

"Yeah I guess she does during class." I admitted.

"Play with her hair while talking to you?"

"N- Actually yeah she does."

"She laughs at your jokes even when the suck?"

"I made a shitty pun on accident yesterday and she laughed for, like, three minutes."

"Okay, gonna count that as a yes. Is she playful and tries to challenge you?"

"She dragged me through the school after convincing- baitin- I agreed to go to lunch with her and her friends."

"Guess that answers my next two questions, does she touch you and has she introduced you two her friends?"

"The one time and on accident and yes."

"Yeah sure, 'on accident'," Saxon hummed sarcastically, "Final question. When you get close, does she move away?"

"No...I guess not." I muttered.

"Well, she's more likely than not into you. Do with that information what you will." Saxon said casually.

"So what do I do?" I asked as I walked to face the front of the older guy.

"I don't know man. Do you like her back?"

"I mean, she's nice, she's quirky which is always fun, I told her about my parents and she took it well, she's very cute, a little childish but i'm fine with that. I don't know what i'm feeling man, I don't usually act like this. Do I like her?" I asked.

"I don't know man. Listen, want my opinion?" Saxon asked as he set both hands onto my shoulders.

"Yes."

"Get to know her better. Learn more about her and then make your decision," Saxon explained before patting my shoulders, "I have work to do Blondie, hope this helped you out in your romantic quest."

Saxon left the office and I was soon standing alone, devising a plan to learn more about Ruby Rose.

* * *

"Hey Ruby." I greeted as I entered Calculus. I still had five minutes before class started and I decided to take advantage of my stroke of luck.

"Hey Jaune." Ruby greeted with a warm smile.

"So I have a question." Jaune asked as he sat down next to the short petite girl.

"What's up?" Ruby asked, leaning forward.

"Well, Sun came down with the flu and I don't have a partner for the presentation and I know you don't have one so I was wondering if you'd be okay with me partnering up with you." I explained as Ruby's face lit up slightly.

"That'd be awesome." Ruby exclaimed.

"Great but we're kinda behind so maybe we should meet up at your or my place after school to work." I explained, praying my plan would work.

"My place is fine." Ruby said while twirling a lock of hair between her finger absentmindedly.

"Nice." I said casually, glad that Sun could be bought off into not coming to school for three days so easily and while celebrating. Phase one. Complete.

* * *

"Okay Jaune, this is basically a shell game and they're insanely easy to scam." Scarlet explained from the crew's spot on the roof where we sat on an air vent with three bent playing cards in between us, while Sage, Neptune and Ren stood at out sides.

This is such a great way to spend my lunch. Thanks Scarlet, you moron. I sighed as I set my head into my hand as Scarlet moved the cards back and forward while speaking and rhyming in a low tone, trying to distract me. After Scarlet stopped moving the cards he spoke, "Find the queen."

I flipped over the middle card and was greeted with the sight of the queen of spades. "Yay I win. Can I leave now?"

Scarlet looked at me with a deadpanned glare before turning over the queen and moving the cards again, faster this time. I was pretty sure I was managing to keep track of the queen but when Scarlet asked me to flip a card I was met with the sight of the eight of hearts, "What the hell?"

I flipped over the other two cards and saw the king of diamonds and an ace of clubs. I looked up at Scarlet to see him pull the queen of spades out of his shirt pocket, "It's simple slight of hand Jaune. I lurn you in with a win, then take your bankroll. But thankfully, the morons who run these games aren't the only ones who know sleight of hand."

"What do you mean?" I asked as Scarlet turned the cards over again.

"Neptune, if you would." Scarlet said as he gestured to the cards in between us.

Neptune soon took over my spot, forcing me off the vent, and began moving the cards around insanely fast. I'm not even ashamed to admit that I lost track of where what cards were. But i knew there was no queen in the set. As Neptune stopped he spoke, "Find the queen."

But there is no queen. What the hell is happening right now? Help.

Scarlet, to my astoundment, flipped over the middle card and there was the queen of spades and all the pieces clicked. Scarlet had the queen up his sleeve and when picking up the middle card, he switched the card he just picked up with the queen up his sleeve. It was so fast though, I didn't even see it and that scared me a little. I was the one who had an eye for finding this kind of thing and I was easily tricked by a simple sleight of hand trick.

"Don't feel bad Jaune. The worst thing about this con is that it rarely can actually work. The dealer might switch the card you're looking for on the spot or a number of other things. Plus, i've been doing this for longer than you and cons are speciality," Scarlet explained, to which I simply nodded, "We'll head to the wharf after class and i'll show it to you in action a few times."

Oh...shit. Why me?

"Erm. I can't today"

"Why not?" Scarlet asked, causing me to fall into internal panic. I can lie to almost anyone, and the guys were on the very short list of people who can see right through my bullshitting. So naturally, I was kinda fucked.

I sighed, "I have to go to Ruby's house for our presentation in Calculus. With Sun coming down with the flu I needed a new partner."

Nice job Jaune, not a complete lie. A lot of it is but not all of it. Go me.

"Oh. Well, tomorrow is fine." Scarlet admitted as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards and slipped the loose cards into the deck, so it was a full fifty-two.

I mentally patted myself on the back, having deceived my friends for the time being and decided it was time to make tracks.

"See you guys later. Gotta head to class early to make up a test." I said honestly, seeing as how I had skipped class earlier in the week and in fact, missed a unit test for Chemistry.

I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder before descending from the roof all the while trying to remember as much of the periodic table I could.

* * *

I felt weird. Like, really fucking weird. I usually had a good lock on my emotions. Anger, confidence, and pride were the only emotions I usually couldn't control. I didn't force myself to suppress anger because it can be channeled into things to make my performance better and confidence wasn't something I thought I needed to repress. Confidence was good and pride...as much as it hurts to admit it, pride is my hubris. My fatal flaw. Everything else was usually on lock down, only let out when I was among friends. So weird was the only way I could describe feeling as I waited for Ruby's dad to pick me and her up from school.

I quietly tried to get a hold on my feelings as me and Ruby sat at the stone outdoor table, me listening to music in one ear as we shared small talk. Ruby had small mannerisms that I hadn't noticed before, the way she taps her foot on the ground rapidly when not talking, scratching the back of her head while smiling, picking her nails.

"So we have to do all of the problems but we're only gonna present one?" Ruby asked as she looked at the open text book between us.

"Yep. How bout we start with six." I commented as I pointed to the problem.

"Too easy. We don't want to look like Cardin while doing this." Ruby said before giggling.

"You're right Rose," I said before stroking my chin, "How bout fifteen. That looks promising."

"Sounds good," I said as I closed her textbook, "See? We're already, like, a quarter of the way done."

Ruby laughed and moved her textbook into her bag, "Dad should be here anytime soon."

"I can wait. At least i'm in good company." I said, leaning back against the pic-a-nic table. I am so smooth.

Ruby smiled at me as a black sedan pulled up to the curb in front of us, Ruby stood up and brushed off the back of her skirt, "That's Dad."

Black sedan? Great, I feel like i'm about to be kidnapped. Woo. I followed Ruby to the black car and climbed into the back and Ruby climbed into the front. I saw a tall blonde man with blonde stubble and lilac eyes looking at me in his rearview mirror and I already felt like I was being examined.

Ruby lightly slapped the man on the shoulder and he was broken out of his examination before smiling at the girl then turning to face me, extending a hand "Hi, i'm Taiyang Xiao Long."

"Jaune Arc." I said as I shook his hand. Oh my fucking god why is he trying to crush my hand?! What the fuck man?!

I shook off the pain and soon we were driving down the road, Ruby sending me apologetic looks from the rear view. I massaged my hand, silently wincing. Thou middle age man doth hoist.

We soon pulled into the suburbs of Vale and I was enamored by the expensive new houses. I could never afford to live in a neighborhood like this...perfect lawns and white picket fences weren't even my style. I preferred the city...high rises, and alleyways were practically in my blood.

The sedan bumped and jostled as Taiyang pulled into a driveway in a cul-de-sac. My eyes locked onto Ruby's house, a simple but expensive looking two story with a connecting garage. I got out of the car and adjusted my messengers bag as Taiyang and Ruby climbed out, we all began walking towards the front door, Taiyang spinning his keys around his finger.

I could now tell that he was wearing a simple black and white suit, the wind blew by and his jacket moved slightly and I could see a holstered gun on his hip. I gulped slightly, we entered the house and Ruby immediately grabbed onto my arm, "We'll be upstairs in my room."

I didn't even have time to take in anything as Ruby pulled me up the stairs and into the first door on the right. After getting over how fast Ruby hand managed to drag me up a flight of stairs, I looked around and realized I was in Ruby's bedroom. It was simple and, unsurprisingly, swathed in shades of red, black and white. I walked to Ruby's desk which was full of photos of her friends and family, I picked up a photo of a woman in her late twenties holding a small baby with red and black hair, "Is this you and your mom, Rubes?"

Ruby stood beside me and looked at the picture, "Yeah, her name was Summer Rose."

"She's beautiful," I said before chuckling, "Baby you is pretty cute too."

Ruby laughed with a soft blush before plucking the framed photo from my hand and then setting it down, "Let's get started."

Ruby sat on the bed and dug around in her bag before pulling out her notebook and textbook, "Fifteen…"

I sat in Ruby's desk chair and pulled out my own binder and textbook, "Let's get to it."

We slowly worked through the problems for about two hours before Ruby eventually tossed her notebook into the air as she threw herself backwards and laid on the bed, the notebook falling onto her stomach, "I need a break."

I smiled at the petite girl, "Course."

Ruby sighed as she dragged her notebook off her stomach, having changed into a pair of gray sweatpants and a red hoodie halfway through their studying, "Dinner should be starting soon...do you want to stay over?"

I leaned forward and could see a blush creeping up on her cheeks as I spoke, "Sure. As long your dad is okay with it."

Ruby stood and opened her door, "Dad!"

"Yeah?!"

"Can Jaune stay for dinner?!"

"Sure!"

"Thanks Dad," Ruby shouted before shutting the door and turning back to me, "He said it's cool."

"I heard, pretty sure the entire block heard." I joked.

"Come on. Dinners probably almost ready." Ruby said as I stood up and took off my hoodie, revealing my All Time Low T-shirt.

"'We go down together or we don't go down at all'," Ruby read off my shirt, "That's from A Love Like War, right?"

"Yeah. I love me some ATL." I admitted as we went downstairs, me finally having took off my sneakers after being uncomfortable for an hour and some change.

"I listen to them a bit." Ruby said as we stepped into the foyer, at least i'm pretty sure it's called a foyer. My socked toes curled above the stone cold tile and I realized that Ruby was wearing slippers. We walked through a short, wide hallway into a fork in the hallway where the left side revealed an open and expensive looking kitchen where Taiyang seemed to be putting the finishing touches on serving plate of cooked steaks and the other revealed a expensive but fuctional looking dining room where Yang was sitting on her phone.

Taiyang's jacket had come off and now I could see what accompanied the gun I saw earlier, a badge with a visible badge number. Three-six-seven-two-zero-nine. Three means he's a detective. Six means sixth precinct. Ooooohhhhh noooooo. This isn't good.

"Hey Jaune," Yang greeted cheerfully, " Didn't know you were here."

"Yeah, me and Ruby were doing some homework." I said as I shoved my hands in my pockets awkwardly, just realizing how I probably look like a punk to Taiyang. Punk band T-shirt, semi-tight jeans and Converse sneakers. I looked just like the kinda guy dads want to see with their daughters. Hoo-fucking-ray.

* * *

 **AN: Kinda short chapter. I know. BUT, I have things to report. This is a Lancaster fic, obviously. There will be a continuation of this chapter soon but I will be moving across the state soon because my dad got a job so i'll probably be M.I.A for a bit while i'm packing and moving but I have started two more fics for your reading pleasures, Spectre and Lionheart. I suggest you check them both out because I love writing the both of them. Follow and favorite to stay up to date on the story and review telling me what you thought about the chapter, stay cool everyone and live out loud.**


	8. 007: The Turning Point

"Brothers aligned  
We'll drive through the night  
Promptly we'll fight  
Like fire in the sky  
You're all my friends until the end"

-Reclaim Your Throne, Nathan Sharp (NateWantsToBattle)

Chapter 007

The Turning Point

* * *

I walked out out the Rose-Xiao Long household in a cold sweat. It was a whole new level of terrifying, ya know, eating dinner with a detective who was probably investigating the crime that I had committed not even three weeks ago. I turned towards the sky as the cold wind caressed my face and tousled my already messy blonde hair, I was in Suburbia and had to get back to Brick Mansions...which was on the other side of town. It was too dark and I was too tired to do any real freerunning so I was forced to pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts, searching for someone I knew for sure had a car.

* * *

A cherry red and black 1969 Mustang slowly rolled down the constantly expanding surface streets of Suburbia, the crimson beast growled as it approached me and I was honestly in awe of the amazing ride. It stopped in front of me and the door swung open and I saw Leo lighting a cigarette as I climbed into the passenger seat next to him, "Sorry for calling you so late man."

"Please. We're friends, i'd be insulted if you didn't." Leo said as he rolled down his window and blew the smoke from a drag out the window.

We rolled through Suburbia at a quick and slightly loud pace, the beast they were currently in was roaring. Not as loud as it could, but roaring all the same. Leo was a relaxed guy for the most part, I haven't known him for all that long but there was something about him that made me feel...at ease. Leo's crimson eyes sparkled with curiosity as he spoke, "So how's your quest for love going?"

"Saxon told you?" I asked, not really surprised.

"Unless you tell him it's between you and him, there's a solid chance me and Jace will heard about it." Leo said as he flicked his cherry into the wind as he got onto the freeway.

"It went okay I guess," I said as I rolled down my own window and let my own arm hang out of the car and sway in the wind, "Her dad is...protective."

"Most of them are man. Kinda why I didn't date or really do anything with chicks before I turned eighteen." Leo said simply as the beast roared and charged through the herd of people simply trying to get home from work. I almost felt bad for them, Leo was pushing eighty-five and I had a feeling he could get into triple digits without breaking a sweat.

"How old are you anyway?" I asked, genuinely curious seeing as how I had never actually heard any of the Wilt and Blush employees say how old they were.

"I just turned nineteen, Jace is also nineteen and Saxon is about to turn twenty at the end of the month." Leo explained as he flicked his cigarette out of the window and they got onto an off ramp into the downtown area.

"I think we have a tail." Leo said after a while as we experienced true Vale stop and go traffic.

"What," I ask, slightly worried. Why was someone following us? I looked over my shoulder to see and only spotted normal traffic, "Which one and for how long?"

"The cop car three cars back has been following since the off ramp," Leo said as he turned into a small neighborhood that looked to be full of low income housing.

"Great...we're being tailed by a cop and you take us to the hood." I muttered as Leo's crimson eyes almost shined in the night, like a predator who had just caught up with their prey. I was slightly unnerved by the look, if anything we were the ones who should be scared in this situation...so why did Leo look like he held all the cards in this game? I found out in less than a minute.

The police cruiser turned onto our street and quickly crept up behind us and flashed its lights with a small boop-boop sound. Leo pulled onto the side of the road, in front of a house and I could see a small child look out his window in worry as the police car parked two car lengths back. A man climbed out of the cruiser and slowly walked towards the car.

"Jaune. He's not a cop." Leo muttered quietly.

"How do you know that?" I whisper shouted at the lion faunus.

"He just pulled his gun."

"Either of you, Jaune Arc?" A deep voice asked as the well muscled man stood in front of Leo's open window.

"That would be me sir." I said smoothly while Leo simply sat in silence, waiting and probably wondering why this guy was asking for me. The man took a step back and raised his hand, his hand that held a silenced Glock 21, and aimed at me. Leo's body uncoiled and leaped into action as his left arm darted out of the car and grabbed the man's wrist and pulled his arm and part of his upper body into the car.

I wrenched the gun from the assailant's hand and heard the sound of metal lightly scraping against metal and barely saw a flash of silver and red steel spin around Leo's right thumb. The assailant let loose a blood curdling scream as Leo's butterfly knife found a new home in the man's eye socket.

Leo shoved the man back, causing him to tumble back onto the ground as he screamed and Leo leapt out of his car's window, landing knees first on the man's chest. Leo's tank top was off in a flash and was shoved into the man's mouth and was partially used to soak up the blood from Leo's stab wound.

Leo grunted as he punched the man who in the face, knocking him out, "J. Get out here and help me."

I wordlessly and quickly climbed out of the car and began helping Leo quickly load the unconscious assailant into his trunk...which happened to be metal plated. We quickly got back into the Mustang and Leo, unsurprisingly, peeled out of the neighborhood. All the while muttering about how dark it was and how the make and model of his was hidden by the shadows and how it was too dark for anyone to make out our faces and too dark to make out his tattoos.

"That was fucking crazy." I breathed out as Leo took the fastest way to Brick Mansions possible, while still turning every corner he could and weaving in and out of traffic.

"Yeah. Cool if I crash at your place just in case" Leo asked as he dug out his phone and tossed it to me, "Call Sax, Jace and Adam. Tell them to meet us at your place."

"O-on it." I stuttered out as I opened Leo's contacts and searched for Adam's number.

"What's up kid?" Adam greeted casually and almost cheerfully, having picked up on the first ring.

"It's Jaune...we have a little problem."

* * *

"So he asked for you by name?" Adam asked me, having made himself comfortable on the bar stool as me and Leo, who was now wearing one of my white long sleeves, retold our story.

"Yes." I confirmed from my spot on the windowsill that lead to the fire escape. My body shook slightly, finally coming down from all the adrenaline that had been rushing through my system.

"Why would someone want to kill you?" Sun asked pointlessly, already knowing my answer and everyone else's. None of us had a damn clue.

"You piss anyone off lately?" Jace asked from his seat on the coffee table.

"I steal people's wallets, jewelry and phones on a daily basis." I deadpanned.

"Let's just count that as a yes." Saxon deadpanned weakly as he leaned against the breakfast bar in clothes that I have never seen him in before. A black leather jacket with white accents, a dark gray hoodie underneath and black leather pants that looked better on him than I would ever admit out loud.

"Dude what's up with your clothes?" I asked, I honestly wanted something else to focus on for the moment. I didn't want to spend my entire night coming to terms with how I almost died so i'd honestly grasp at anything to divert attention away from me.

"Nothing. I was just out when I got the call." Saxon explained tiredly as he played with the string of his hoodie. He was acting casual, too casual.

"Dude...were you on a date?" Sun asking in a bewildering tone, the same kind of tone you'd take when asking your bro if he had really caught feelings for a chick.

"Whaaaat? No...that's a stupid question. Why would you ask such a dumb question?"

"Oh my fucking god he was." Jace said, wonder and disbelief filling his voice.

"Saxon has a girlfriend?" Scarlet asked curiously as Sax sputtered slightly, I now know why Sun and the guys give me shit about Ruby…this was fun.

"W-we're not exclusive." Saxon sputtered out before realizing his mistake, "...fuck you all."

"Guys," Leo shouted, unfortunately bringing everyone's attention back to the topic at hand, "I have a wannabe assassin bleeding out and unconscious in my truck...what do we do?"

"Get everything we can out of him then ice him." Adam said simply, causing Scarlet to snicker slightly.

"Don't you think that's kinda...cold…"

…

…

"Go to your room." Sun commanded as he held his hand against his face.

"Yes sir." Scarlet said with a cocky smile as he strutted out of the living room.

"He wasn't going to contribute any good ideas anyway." Neptune said louder than normal.

"I heard that!"

"I know! That's why I said it loudly!"

"Enough," Adam commanded with bass in his voice, automatically drawing everyone's attention. The red haired bull faunus climbed off his bar stool and stood in the center of the room, "We'll take this guy to Wilt and Blush and interrogate him in the basement."

"Wilt and Blush has a basement?" I asked, completely clueless as usual.

"Of sorts. We're mercenaries Jaune, we need a place to keep equipment...among other things." Adam said vaguely, keeping me in the dark as long as necessary. Whether it was to keep me safe or to draw out suspense is anyone's guess. Probably the latter to be honest.

"Sounds like we got a plan," Saxon said as he picked his motorcycle helmet up off the counter, frowning slightly, "I'll go on ahead and get my tools ready."

"Tools?" Neptune asked as Saxon chuckled nervously, carrying his helmet with him as he left the apartment.

"Sometimes advanced interrogation is necessary." Adam explained calmly.

"You mean torture?" Sage asked, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at the bull faunus.

"Yes."

"We're just thieves Adam. We don't torture people." Sun said exasperatedly as he walked forward and faced Adam.

"There's no we about it, it's Saxon who will be doing it. I don't have the stomach for it and neither do Jace or Leo." Adam admitted to the group begrudgingly, causing a silence to hang in the room.

* * *

The things I saw and heard that night were unspeakable, I would carry the memories of watching Saxon "interrogate" the assassin to my grave. I swore that I wouldn't tell anyone, Anubis himself could have risen from the damn Underworld and demanded that I divulge what Saxon did. I still wouldn't say a word. If you want me to describe it in a word it would be...carnage.

I did have a revelation that night though; somewhere between watching Leo cringe so hard it nearly broke the one way glass separating us from the interrogation room and watching a blood soaked Saxon walk out of the room and fall to his knees before beginning to puke violently, I realized that to most of society...we're all kids. Even Adam who couldn't be older than twenty-five would be seen as a kid to a lot of people. I could lie, steal and hurt didn't change the fact that I still had some growing up to do. No matter how much I hated to admit it.

After Saxon had rinsed his mouth out and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a baggy sleeveless hoodie and Leo mopped up Saxon's puke, we all met upstairs in Adam's office.

"What's the word, Lacroix?" Adam asked as he leaned back against his desk; while the rest of us simply scattered throughout the room, lounging on the couches or on the floor.

"Jonathan Grey." Saxon muttered softly, almost whispered.

A pregnant silence filled the room as one question filled the minds of everyone inside but Sage was the first to vocalize it, "Who the fuck is Jonathan Grey?

"Jonathan Grey is the current CEO of Grey Consolidated, whose Science Division are making leaps and bounds in cancer research and they're Tech Division just released the world's first gaming laptop on par with fully optimized desktop setups." Neptune said smoothly, causing the other nine people in the room to stare at him.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Jace asked.

"His Wikipedia article." Neptune said as he raised his phone up and tossed it to Adam, who caught the phone and began where Neptune left off.

"Grey has been recognized as a brilliant philanthropist and blah blah blah...four ex wives, all of which have been on the cover of Playboy...blah blah blah...and is the last living descendent of Franklin Drake… Well no wonder he wants you dead, you six stole his great-great-great-great-great grandfather's diary." Adam said, skimming the article before reaching the part that he assumed concerned us.

"So he somehow found out our identities and sent a hitman after us?" Sun asked before Saxon cleared his throat.

"Basic idea but wrong order. He sent a hitman after the thieves and the hitman did some investigating and was playing a hunch when he went after Jaune so he didn't tell Grey about us." Saxon explained quietly in a very un-Saxon like way.

"What makes you think he was telling the truth?" Scarlet said, for once asking a legitimate question.

"You saw what I did...you heard what I said. Would you lie to me?" Saxon almost growled.

"No...I wouldn't." I said, still shaken up over Saxon's "interrogation" and threats.

"So Grey is blind and we know all the players on the board. We're at the advantage." Neptune said as Sage tsked and shook his head as he scanned his phone's screen.

"We might know the players but he runs the game," Sage explained as he held up his phone for all to see, "He's worth one-forty-one million lien."

"That's a huge bankroll for a man not even in his thirties." Adam commented as he tossed Neptune's phone back to him.

"The man's the definition of a silver spoon brat." Neptune nearly spat.

"So what do we do about him? Kill him?" Jace asked as he ran a hand through his hair tiredly.

"No! No more killing." I demanded as I stood up, i'm not gonna stand here and act like a white knight or some shit. Deep down, I wanted to kill him but I knew even deeper down in the depths of my soul that there was a better way to hurt him.

"Well what do you suggest we do then, Jaune? Let this rich fuck realize that his headhunter didn't get the job done and let him send ten more after you guys!?" Leo asked, raising his voice almost as loud as his car's engine.

I opened my mouth to speak when suddenly an idea struck me, struck like lightning. I smirked and chuckled lightly, "We take his silver spoon."

Everyone in the room gaped at me for a moment before Adam pushed himself off his desk and simply narrowed his emerald eyes at me before speaking, "You're suggesting we rob him?"

"I'm suggesting we take every last fucking penny this guy has and split it ten ways. Think about it guys, if he has no money, he can't send anyone after us and what would he tell the cops? A group of teenagers and one twenty-five year old stole one hundred and forty-one million lien from him," I said as I walked into the center of the room, "Guys, we'd be set for life. One hundred and forty-one million lien divided ten ways is still fourteen point one million for each of us, we would be golden. No more picking pockets, no more hustling."

A pregnant silence filled the room as everyone truly took in what I was suggesting, we all knew what would happen if we were caught. Prison, twenty plus years in a federal penitentiary.

The silence was broken when Jace stood up and cracked his neck, "I'm in."

"What," Leo asked, standing up and facing his brother, "You realize what it means if we get caught right?"

"Yeah. What have we got to lose?" Jace said simply to his brother.

"How bout our freedom?!"

"We've done a lot more dangerous than steal some money from a trust fund baby Leo," Jace said before turning to me, "I'm in, Jaune."

I smiled at the fox faunus and watched as Leo scratched the back of his head and sighed, "This is fucked."

"I know." I said casually, keeping up my smile.

"Fuck it. I'm in." Leo said before holding his fist out to me and we bumped fists.

"I'm game," Sage muttered before giving me a small smile, "If you all get caught i'd be pretty lonely out here."

"Yeah, i'm with Sage," Scarlet said jokingly, "I'd be pretty bored without you guys."

"Neptune," I said, looking at the cyan haired hacker, "We need a tech guy or this just isn't gonna happen."

"I swear to god if I end up in prison i'm gonna shank you, Jaune." Neptune said as he stood up and pulled me in for a bro hug, "I'm in."

"That's what I like to hear...Sun? Ren?" I said looking at the last two thieves in the room.

"Let's do it," Sun said, cold determination filling his eyes, "This asshole tried to have us killed. I want to take him out at the knees."

"Nice to see you passionate about something for once Jaune," Ren said with a small smile, "Guess I have to help."

"Thanks guys." I said as I smiled at my two friends then turned to the last two people in the room, the wolf and the bull, "Adam? Sax?"

"Yeah. I'm with you Jaune." Saxon said quietly, still clearly shaken up over what he had done.

"Well someone needs to lead this ragtag group of criminals," Adam said as he rubbed the back of his head, "Might as well be me."

"Excellent. Arc's Ten is complete." I said with a grin.

"Yeah we're gonna have to work on that name." Adam muttered causing all of us to laugh. Looking back on it, it was a bad name.

* * *

In the morning I looked less like a guy who had stayed up half the night coming up with the idea to rob one of the richest men in the world and burying a dead body and instead looked like a typical sleep deprived high schooler. Granted at the moment I was both of those things and that was especially obvious as I sat half asleep with my head in my hands in Calculus.

"You look awful." I heard from my left and only opened my eyes enough to see Ruby standing behind her chair, looking at me in worry.

"Tell me something I don't know." I grumbled as I rubbed my eyes and sighed deeply, dead bodies were a lot harder to bury than movies make it look.

"Didn't sleep much?" Ruby asked as she sat down and began digging her things out of her bag.

"Yup." I groaned, when the body was buried and the night was all said and done I had managed to grab an hour and a half nap which did practically nothing for me.

"Is something wrong?" Ruby asked worryingly.

"I'm good." I might have possibly convinced my best friends to commit a major crime with me and lost basically all sleep because I stayed up till five burying a dead assassin but considering that i'm not dead like I could have been, I was pretty good.

"You know you can tell me anything right?" Ruby said, looking at me with those big, beautiful silver eyes. Wait what? Why did that pop into my mind?

"Yeah...I know Rose."

* * *

 **AN: I'm not back by any means I just got the urge to write last night and ended up doing this. I'm still dealing with some stuff but hopefully i'll soon return to regular updating. Leave a review telling me what you thought and asking your questions. Follow and favorite to stay up to date on the story. Stay cool everyone and live out loud.**


	9. 008: The Other Point of View

"I'm trying not to let it show, that I don't want to let this go.  
Is there somewhere you can meet me?  
'Cause I clutched your arms like stairway railings.  
And you clutched my brain and eased my ailing."

\- Is There Somewhere, Halsey

* * *

Chapter 008

The Other Point of View

* * *

I'm not really a hundred percent sure when I began to like like Jaune Arc. It could have happened at when I first saw him, when Ms. Goodwitch introduced him to the class and I saw his cobalt eyes and honey colored messy hair. It could have been when he treated me like an actual person and not some little kid who just happened to be smart. Maybe when he didn't tease me for being a complete geek and instead got geeky with me. It could have one of these or one of many more.

It was the second of December and as I walked out of Signal High I was determined to think of a way to make my feeling clear to Jaune...but my resolve crumbled to pieces once I saw him. I had only seen him the night before, where he was bombarded with questions by Dad and Yang during dinner and left almost immediately after. A light snow had fell in the dead of night and now at least an inch of snow covered the ground which lead to everyone, including Jaune, breaking out the winter clothes.

Jaune was near the steps down to the parking lot wearing a zipped up, slim, tan cargo jacket with a white and black scarf wrapped around the coat's collar and what part of his neck that would be exposed, blue jeans and what looked like a pair of black combat boots. I was honestly surprised by how good he managed to look in simple clothes, so surprised in fact that I forgot I was walking and tripped; barely being caught by Yang at the last moment.

"What's wrong with you si-," Yang began before she looked to see Jaune at the bottom of the stairs and chuckled out of amusement, "Wow. Very smooth, Rubes."

I huffed embarrassingly as Yang hauled me up to my feet and buried my face into my scarf to hide my blush, "I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do."

"Just tell him how you feel." Yang said causing me to groan and turn away from Jaune.

"It's not that simple!" I quietly shouted at Yang as I mentally tried my hardest to get rid of my blush. Stupid thing! Making my embarrassment obvious!

"Enough about Jaune, who's his friend?" Yang muttered, causing Ruby to turn to see that Jaune wasn't actually alone. A guy who looked slightly older than Jaune with black and white hair that was slightly covered by a slouch beanie stood in front of Jaune, a motorcycle helmet in his left hand and a lit cigarette in his right. I couldn't help but look at the guy's clothes, i've always been interested in clothes and he definitely wore his with certain confidence, as if he was extremely comfortable around the massive group of students swarming around them. His slouch beanie was the first thing I saw then his army green long coat that stopped just above his knees with a white long sleeve beneath and slightly worn black jeans and tan boots.

"I don't know, i've never seen him with Jaune before." I said before I felt Yang's hands wrap around my hood and placed out of the corner of my eye to see a slightly creepy smile on her face.

"Then let's go meet him." Yang said as he began pushing me forward and I tried to resist her grasp but she was stronger than me, unsurprising seeing as how I was a geek and she was the captain of the girl's basketball team...and five inches taller. Not really important to her being stronger than me but...it's still a factor!

"Hey, Jaune." Yang said excitedly, drawing the attention of Jaune and the mystery boy towards Yang and me, while I tried my hardest not to stare at Jaune.

"Hey Yang," Jaune greeted as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and held them near his mouth and breathed into them, clouds of white vapor filling the air from his breath, "Hi Ruby.

"Hey Jaune," I said with a small smile and a just as small wave, "I'm sorry about Dad last night, I didn't know he'd ask so many questions."

"It's cool, Ruby." Jaune said as the mystery boy took a puff of his cigarette and blew the smoke into the air, Jaune chuckled as he scratched the back of his neck nervously, "Sorry. Girls, this is Saxon Armonia. He's the DJ at Wilt and Blush."

"Blake's brother's club?" I asked as Saxon flicked the cherry of his cigarette into the snow.

"That's the one." Saxon said drawing my attention to his storm gray eyes.

"I knew you looked familiar, I didn't recognize you without the fedora." Yang said with a laugh, clearly trying and succeeding in making conversation. Which I then ruined.

"I thought only faunus worked at Wilt and Blush."

Yang nudged me with her elbow at me, giving me a look that said, "That's too forward."

Saxon gave a small half smile as his slouched beanie shifted on the top of his head, "You're right."

"Ohhhhhhh." I said, only then getting the purpose of the gray beanie before smiling awkwardly, "Sorry."

"It's alright. I wear hats all the time so people _don't_ know that i'm a faunus," Saxon said as I watched the smoke of his cigarette float and dissipate into the air before he turned to Jaune, "You're right, Jaune. She is pretty cute."

…

…

...

...

What? Excuse me? I don't think I heard that right. Jaune had said that i'm cute? Dorky, socially awkward, geeky, not attractive me? Saxon must be teasing me. I looked to Jaune for confirmation to see that the blonde boy was blushing.

Saxon smirked as he took a drag of his cigarette and Yang looked back and forth as me and Jaune slowly descended into awkward, blushing messes. A light ringing interrupted the awkward silence and Jaune began fumbling as he reached for his scroll and answered it, obviously trying to sound calmer than he really was, "Hello?"

"Hey, Leo what's good?"

…

"And Neptune can't do it because…?"

…

"What do you mean he's busy? This is important shit, tell him to take a rain check."

...

"Okay okay. Too much information. I'll get down there, but tell Neptune he owes me."

...

"Later." Jaune said as he hung up and simply said, "I have to go," before darting off, disappearing into the crowd of students.

"Wait!" I shouted, finally getting a hold of my feelings and emotions enough to speak but it was too late, Jaune had disappeared.

A low chuckle rumbled from Saxon's throat before he took a final puff of the cigarette and tossed it into the snow, "Wow you are crushing harder than I thought."

"W-what?" I asked, surprised by the statement. Did Jaune talk to his friends about me? Oh gosh, what does he say? I need to know.

"Nothing," Saxon said as he adjusted his beanie with his now free hand, an amused smirk painted on his face, "And people wonder why I didn't go to high school."

"That's an option?" Yang asked humorously, leaning against the monochrome haired faunus while smirking at him.

"If you try hard enough, Blondie." Saxon said, choosing to lean against Yang, which confused me and I blinked slowly as I watched Saxon and Yang lean against each other and crack jokes.

"You two are way too alike."

"What on Remnant are you talking about?" The two said in unison before I sighed, I was stuck with Yang and a gender bent, more punk looking and probably angrier Yang and was still clueless about Jaune. Perfect.

* * *

" _Your little brother never tells you but he loves you so  
You said your mother only smiled on her TV show  
You're only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope  
I hope you make it to the day you're 28 years old_

You're dripping like a saturated sunrise  
You're spilling like an overflowing sink  
You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece  
And now I'm tearing through the pages and the ink"

I laid in bed and barely stared into my ceiling fan as music drifted out of my scroll, the lyrics reminded me of Jaune in a way. He could hide his real feelings and his life before Vale all he wanted but he he was slowly losing grip of them, he showed that when he told me about his actual parents.

He needed someone to talk to...to confide in. I just wish he'd see me as that someone. He may be ripped at every edge, but Jaune was a masterpiece to me.

* * *

 **AN: A very short chapter from Ruby's point of view. Don't really have much to say, i've started school again so i'm pretty tired. Follow and favorite to stay up to date on the story and leave a review telling me what you thought. Later.**


	10. Announcement

[User _Log1c_ has signed in]

Okay, piece of shit move incoming. Arc Among Thieves has begun the process of being rewritten, it will be a new story with a similar setting and characters but with some changes. Partially for realism's sake and partially because a lot of my current ideas just wouldn't work in this story. I'll post another chapter on this story once the new project is dropped but till then I encourage you check out some of my other stuff, I'll see you soon.

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	11. Go On

Go check out the new story; A Thief and his Confidants.


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